A positioning system for mobile robots using symmetrical rotating laser beams

Abstract

This paper proposes a new system for positioning and controlling a mobile robot over a wide area. The system uses particular laser beacons, each of which emits two symmetrical laser beams travelling in opposite directions around the beacon. The beacons are placed at two reference positions, and a photosensor carried on a mobile robot receives flashes from these beacons, yielding instantaneous data about the robot's position and coordinate plane. Before using a mobile robot, we tested the system with a stationary sensor. The tests proved that the system can provide precise positional measurements.