Manipulator operations are complicated by sensor noise, mechanical compliance, and system bias. These uncertainties are compounded in field environments, such as those encountered in humanitarian demining. By taking advantage of the generally flat and static structure of the terrain, a series of adaptive corrections and filters refine a sensed topographical model and generate a trajectory that is robust to inherent inaccuracies and modeling errors. Experimental testing on a mobile robot using stereo-vision as modeling sensor indicates that this method provides a tracking precision of plusmn5 mm on relatively flat ground. As such, it will keep the attached mine sensors close to the ground, improving effectiveness