Analysis of Terrain-Aware Optimal Path Planning Methods for Stable Off-Road Navigation

In the field of off-road navigation, integrating terrain data into path planning is becoming increasingly vital. It considers terrain roughness, slope, and step height, which are crucial parameters to ensure stability. This approach significantly differs from indoor driving scenarios, where the terrain is generally flat and exhibits less variability. In this paper, we define the traversability of terrain, numerically quantify it in terms of cost, and apply various asymptotically optimal planners, including RRT-Connect, RRT*, and PRM*, to identify the most cost-effective optimally traversable path. These planners are specifically designed to iteratively improve their solutions over time, gradually approaching the optimal solution as computation time increases. The effectiveness of these planners is evaluated within a limited time budget to assess their performance in simulation under realistic off-road conditions.