{"ID":2855563,"CreatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","UpdatedAt":"2026-06-01T04:54:23.091178241Z","DeletedAt":null,"paper_url":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.12169","arxiv_id":"2510.12169","title":"Hybrid Terrain-Aware Path Planning: Integrating VD-RRT* Exploration and VD-D* Lite Repair","abstract":"Autonomous ground vehicles operating off-road must plan curvature-feasible paths while accounting for spatially varying soil strength and slope hazards in real time. We present a continuous state--cost metric that combines a Bekker pressure--sinkage model with elevation-derived slope and attitude penalties. The resulting terrain cost field is analytic, bounded, and monotonic in soil modulus and slope, ensuring well-posed discretization and stable updates under sensor noise. This metric is evaluated on a lattice with exact steering primitives: Dubins and Reeds--Shepp motions for differential drive and time-parameterized bicycle arcs for Ackermann steering. Global exploration is performed using Vehicle-Dynamics RRT\\(^{*}\\), while local repair is managed by Vehicle-Dynamics D\\(^{*}\\) Lite, enabling millisecond-scale replanning without heuristic smoothing. By separating the terrain--vehicle model from the planner, the framework provides a reusable basis for deterministic, sampling-based, or learning-driven planning in deformable terrain. Hardware trials on an off-road platform demonstrate real-time navigation across soft soil and slope transitions, supporting reliable autonomy in unstructured environments.","short_abstract":"Autonomous ground vehicles operating off-road must plan curvature-feasible paths while accounting for spatially varying soil strength and slope hazards in real time. We present a continuous state--cost metric that combines a Bekker pressure--sinkage model with elevation-derived slope and attitude penalties. The resulti...","url_abs":"https://arxiv.org/abs/2510.12169","url_pdf":"https://arxiv.org/pdf/2510.12169v2","authors":"[\"Akshay Naik\",\"William R. Norris\",\"Dustin Nottage\",\"Ahmet Soylemezoglu\"]","published":"2025-10-14T05:54:46Z","proceeding":"cs.RO","tasks":"[\"cs.RO\",\"eess.SY\"]","methods":"[\"LoRA\"]","has_code":false}