A Position and Heading Measurement System for Robots - Laser Navigator

This paper describes the development of a position and heading measurement system using for moving robots ( we call ""LASER NAVIGATOR"" ), which is composed of a scanning laser unit (SLU) mounted on a robot and three or more corner-cubes ( retro-reflectors ) fixed on the ground. A coordinate system and corner-cubes are arbitrarily set on a horizontal plane, and their coordinates have already measured by other survey. SLU measures three angles to each CC from a robot heading and computes the position and the heading of the robot on the coordinate system. An experimental model ( LN-I0 ) has been manufactured , evaluated and fundamental data for a production model were obtained. This time a production model (LN-ll) was produced and tested It is confirmed that LN-l1 satisfies user's requirements (1) Distance range 50 m maximum (2) Distance accuracy +- 5 cm maximum (3) Heading range 360 deg. (4) Heading accuracy +- 0.5 deg. maximum This navigation system applies to a floor-finishing-robot used in a building under construction