Mobile Robot Guidance Method Using Laser Spots Irradiated on the Floor from Real World Clicker and its Application for Object Grasping System

Abstract

In order to measure 3D coordinate values of a object to be manipulated by a support robot, we have been developing a "Real-World Clicker (RWC)" using a TOF-type laser distance sensor mounted on a pan-tilt actuator [1][2]. With this RWC the mobile robot can automatically grip and bring any object that user click in a real world. Our conventional robot system, however, used only its odometry to control the mobile robot, which resulted in low accuracy and low success rate in grasping distant objects. In this paper, we propose a method to solve this problem by taking advantage of the RWC not only to indicate the object but also to guide the mobile robot. The key idea is an automatic guidance by laser spots on the floor, illuminated by the laser sensor.