<title>Capaciflector sensor imaging and ranging applications for robot control</title>

Abstract

One basic robotics task is to position a robot tool point over the geometric center of a symmetric object. This paper presents a fully autonomous control command development technique of linear complexity that solves the robot tool point centering and alignment problem. It is based on non-visual sensor imaging and starts with only a partial image of the target in its field of view. A new capacitive proximity and imaging sensor, called a capaciflector, is being used to obtain 2D discrete images of objects with moderate surface complexity. Considered are spacecraft parts whose imaged surfaces are flat with a simple geometrical shape such as a solid rectangle or a circle.