Pmxedings of the 1993 IEEE(RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and System Thermal Path Following Robot Vehicle: Sensor Design and

Abstract

Sensor Desigg This paper introdpes !he concept of,dtoq~ve4~~vig ational indicating the Dagtaken bv a mobile robot. Information Drovided bv detect infra-red energy radiated by the heat trail a pyroelectric based on lithium-tantalate was employed. Within the sensor is foimed into a thin plate capacitor and has a ,,M%rkers (SLNM ) which represent a group of techniques for marking &e robot trajectory can be of direct assistance in number df navigation tasks. The short-lived nature of the markers has the advantage that it is not necessary to remove them after use. However, the varying intensity of the SLNCEmplicates the process of detecting and following path. Heat is one form of SLNM investigat his paper describes a pyroelectric sensor which has been d to detect thermal paths created by heating the floor with a quartz halogen bulb. Three control strategies for following the thermal trail have been developed and tested. A strategy based on Kalman filtering gives the best performance. Details of the control strategies are presented kehbpper together with experimental results showing how they performed in practice.