A structured light based measuring system used for an autonomous interior finishing robot

Abstract

The processings involved in interior finishing work are unhealthy and labor intensive. Thus it is expected that the introduction of autonomous robots can change the situation. This paper describes a robot developed for this purpose. It is designed to implement wall polishing work which belongs to the fundamental wall finishing works and is harmful for workers due to the accompanied dust. The proposed robot system consists of a structured light based 3D scanner and a robot arm (UR5) fixed on an mobile platform. The 3D scanner is adopted for recognizing the defects on the wall surface and measuring its roughness. With these information, it is expected that a robot arm equipped with a specially designed grinder can finish the polishing work. The paper addresses the implementation of the structured light based 3D scanner and the fundamental algorithms for wall surface measurement and the related polishing experiments.