DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS IN A LASER NAVIGATION SYSTEM FOR MOBILE ROBOTS

A navigation system for mobile robots is discussed. The system utilize s a laser anglemeter which measures heading angles to beacons made of retroreflective tape. It is shown that the motion restrictions of a ty pical mobile robot can be utilized to simplify the angle measurement t ask considerably. Beam properties of typical HeNe-lasers and collimate d GaAs-laser diodes are discussed. The collimated GaAs-laser is shown to be superior for the anglemeter. A design rule is given for the angl emeter receiver optics. Noise sources in the anglemeter receiver are d iscussed. Reference is made to a new low-noise photodiode-amplifier ci rcuit which has the photodiode in the feedback path.