Off -road navigation is a very demanding visual task in which texture can play an important role. Travel on a smooth road or path can be done with greater speed and safety in general than on rough natural terrain. In addition, recognition of off -road terrain types can aid in finding the fastest and safest route through a given area. Implementations of two texture methods for identifying certain terrain features in video imagery are briefly discussed. The first method uses edge and morphological filters to identify roadways from offroad. The second method uses a neural net to identify several terrain types based on color, directional texture, global variance and location in the image. Plans to integrate the terrain labeled image produced by the latter method into the ALV's perception system are also discussed.

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