Autonomous control of powered earth-moving vehicles to inhibit vehicle slippage

An autonomous vehicle emergency braking system, comprising:

• a bulldozer vehicle with a chassis, tracks, a blade tool attachment on a front of the chassis, a ripper tool attachment on a rear of the chassis, one or more first hydraulic arms between the chassis and the blade tool attachment, one or more second hydraulic arms between the chassis and the ripper tool attachment, one or more first controls for manipulating movement of the tracks, and one or more second controls for manipulating the blade tool attachment via the first hydraulic arms and the ripper tool attachment via the one or more second hydraulic arms;
• a microcontroller unit on the bulldozer vehicle that is capable of effecting movement of the first and second controls via piston displacement mechanisms;
• one or more GPS antennas mounted at one or more positions on the chassis and capable of receiving GPS signals for use in determining GPS coordinates of at least some of the chassis;
• and
• a control system on the bulldozer vehicle that is configured to be in communication with the microcontroller unit and to perform automated operations including:
• determining changing locations of the chassis over a period of time based at least in part on the determined GPS coordinates of the at least some of the chassis for the period of time;
• determining that the tracks are slipping on an underlying surface based at least in part on the changing locations of the chassis over the period of time differing by at least a threshold amount from one or more expected locations of the chassis over the period of time, wherein the one or more expected locations of the chassis over the period of time correspond to zero or more manipulations of the first controls via the piston displacement mechanisms;
• and
• initiating, in response to the determining that the tracks are slipping on the underlying surface, autonomous operations of the bulldozer vehicle to use at least one of the second controls via the piston displacement mechanisms to move at least one of the ripper tool attachment or the blade tool attachment into the underlying surface, including moving the ripper tool attachment into the underlying surface if the determined changing locations of the chassis over the period of time includes forward motion of the chassis, and including moving the blade tool attachment into the underlying surface if the determined changing locations of the chassis over the period of time include backward motion of the chassis.