THE WARP MACHINE ON NAVLAB

We review the history of the Carnegie-Mellon Warp machine on Navlab, an autonomous land vehicle, and describe three Navlab vision systems implemented on the Warp machine. We then critically evaluate components of Warp in light of this experience. The Warp machine was used to implement stereo vision for obstacle avoidance and color-based road-following systems. The stereo-vision system was FIDO, which is descended from some of the earliest work in vision-guided robot vehicle navigation. Two color-based road following systems were implemented; one adapted conventional vision techniques to the problem of road recognition, and the other used a neural network-based technique to "learn" road following on-line. Finally, we conclude with observations on the utility of Warp on Navlab, the value of applications integration with machine development, the limitations of the "attached processor" model, and recommendations for future systems.