This allows the possibility for an obstacle to pass unnoticed between the laser and the robot during turns. Nomad has commenced with a long distance traverse from the main camp to Nomad valley under the control of the autonomy system. It has driven 8.6km under autonomous control. Both the stereo and laser sensors have been tested on snow, rocks, and blue ice. At this point I have not noticed any difference in sensor performance due to terrain type.
Weather however is a different story.
The stereo cameras have in general worked poorly here. I am not positive if this is due to bad calibration or just low contrast. I am however recording lots of images for later processing. On a sunny day each pair of cameras was able to match 1500 points on the first day of testing. This is lower than the 2000-2500 points typical at the slag heaps.