Abstract

This paper describes a skiing robot that is capable of autonomous skiing on a ski slope based on visual and force sensing. There are two main goals the skiing robot has to achieve when following the prescribed trajectory marked with the ski rate gates–and these are stability and obstacle avoidance. Previously, there were few attempts to produce a skiing robot and most of them were initiated by Shimuzu. He evaluated passive models of a skier that were able to perform skidding and welded and carving turns. In addition, he built a robot that was able to actively produce various ski turns. Zehetmayer also developed various robot models. In previous studies, robots were used in order to imitate several specific motions related to alpine skiing, however, they completely ignored the problem of maintaining stability and navigation on an unknown and unstructured ski slope. Humans, unlike robot models, react on sensed forces, structure of the skiing ground and attempt to execute the desired trajectory. Our plan is to build a robot that is able to ski a slope using visual, force and inclination sensors in a human-like way. The practical application could offer deeper insight with regard to skiing techniques, as well as aid in testing of ski equipment. Einleitung