Online Learning for Offroad Robots: Using Spatial Label Propagation to Learn Long-Range Traversability

We present a solution to the problem of long-range obstacle/path recognition in autonomous robots. The system uses sparse traversability information from a stereo module to train a classifier online. The trained classifier can then accu- rately classify the entire scene. A distance-normalized image pyramid makes it possible to efficiently train a learning network on each frame seen by the robot, using large windows that contain contextual information as well as shape, color, and texture. Traversability labels are initially obtained for each target using a stereo module, then propagated to other views of the same target using temporal and spatial concurrences, producing a classifier that is largely view-invariant. A ring buffer simulates short-term memory and ensures that the discriminative learn- ing is balanced and consistent. This long-range obstacle detection system (LROD) sees obstacles and paths at 30-40 meters, far beyond the maximum stereo range of 12 meters, and adapts very quickly to new environments. Experiments were run on the LAGR robot platform.