Method and system for navigating an autonomous vehicle in an open-pit site

A method for navigating an autonomous vehicle in an open-pit site comprising the steps of:

• acquiring a plurality of observations (72) and odometry information, from a plurality of discrete poses while driving, using a plurality of sensors (31) installed on the autonomous vehicle (30), wherein an observation comprises surroundings information;
• accessing a topological map (10) of the open-pit site and gathering topological information (74) stored therein, wherein the topological map comprises a plurality of intersections and a plurality of segments associated therewith, wherein a segment represents a path of a length to be traversed with lateral boundaries, wherein an intersection represents a junction of at least two segments, or a working area connected with at least a segment;
• accessing an observational map (20) of the open-pit site and gathering past observations (76), wherein an observation comprises surroundings information associated with an intersection or a segment of the topological map (20);
• processing, using a processor unit (33), past observations, acquired observations and odometry information, applying a particle filtering technique and Gaussian processes for modelling observations acquired from discrete poses as a continuous variable and estimating the current pose and according to a current direction of movement, statistically predicting a next pose of the autonomous vehicle;
• commanding the autonomous vehicle (30) via actuators controlled by the processor unit (33), based on detecting whether the autonomous vehicle (30) is in a segment or in an intersection, and respectively command the autonomous vehicle (30) a moving-forward instruction to traverse the segment or a steering instruction to take a subsequent segment.