Hardware adaptation of 2d laser range finder for the acquisition of point clouds in 3d

Abstract

Consulta en la Biblioteca ETSI Industriales (7702)

[EN] This report describes the implementation of the hardware solution to supply a robot with low cost, low weight and small size device able to acquire point clouds (three dimensional points) for posterior treatment. The laser range finding (LRF) technology allows for accurate information retrieval of the environment without any contact with the target surface, in a relatively short period of time. After a discussion of the different types of laser range finders currently available from different manufacturers, the conclusion is that at the moment there is no unique system to carry out the requirements of our application. Reviews of several similar projects that have taken place in different parts of the world have provided us with a general view on possible solutions in order to carry out this work within set objectives. The adopted solution has been to add to a 2D LRF the third dimension by rotating the sensor around the x-axis with one servo motor (the z-axis being the line scan of the LRF). One servo controller board has been designed on the base of a PIC18F452 microcontroller, configurable via RS232. Also a simple and intuitive interface has been developed by using Visual Basic.net. In such a way, the sensor can operate as a 2D LRF, and when an instruction is received then a 3D scan commences, with the input characteristics set by an operator (e.g. number of scan `sweeps¿, number of planes to be scanned). The constraints placed in our design due to the hardware used, is also discussed throughout.