1. A mobile robot for autonomously performing reconnaissance, comprising: a drive system configured to propel the mobile robot across terrain; a range sensor configured to detect a distance between the mobile robot and one or more objects in an environment of the mobile robot; a position reckoner including one or more of the group consisting of a global positioning satellite receiver, an odometer, or an inertial navigation system; a processor communicatively connected to the range sensor, to the position reckoner, and to the drive system, and configured to execute software instructions; and a memory store communicatively connected to the processor, the memory store having stored thereon a plurality of software instructions configured to be executed by the processor, the software instructions including: a mapping routine configured to maintain an occupancy grid map of the environment of the mobile robot, a linear feature routine configured to detect one or more linear patterns in the occupancy grid map and to determine a strongest line among the one or more linear patterns, a navigational routine configured to control the drive system to move the mobile robot in a direction aligned with the strongest line among the one or more linear patterns, and a localization routine configured to update the occupancy grid map using a scaled vector field histogram based on input from the range sensor and the position reckoner integrated using a Kalman filter with a motion model corresponding to the mobile robot.