A Laser Intensity Based Autonomous Docking Approach with Application to Mobile Robot Recharging in Unstructured Environments

摘要

Autonomous docking is a fundamental requirement for mobile robots working in modern warehouses in order to allow them to operate continuously without human intervention. This paper presents a laser intensity based autonomous docking approach, which uses self-adhesive retroreflective tapes as reflectors. Sufficient and necessary conditions for successful reflector detection are derived, which provide a systematic guidance for deployment of laser intensity based reflectors. A laser intensity based reflector detection technique was proposed, allowing for reliable identification of artificial landmarks in dynamic and unstructured environments. To demonstrate the application of the proposed approaches, extensive experiments were conducted to control a differential drive wheeled mobile robot for autonomous docking and recharging.