ANALYSIS AND DESIGN OF A ROBOTIC DISTANCE SENSOR

Analysis and design of a robotic electrooptical distance sensor, based on the phase-shift measurement of a modulated light intensity, is add ressed in this article. The transducer of this sensor employs two ligh t sources (light-emitting diodes), whose intensities are modulated by different-phase sine-wave signals, and one photodiode receiver. The di stance of an object's surface with respect to the sensor is measured b y investigating the received phase shift. The experimental set-up of t he sensor, used in this research, was designed and manufactured such t hat various mechanical and electronic design parameters could be inves tigated independently. Experiments undertaken show that these paramete rs indeed affect the performance of the sensor. The exemplary optimiza tion analysis carried out considered only two performance aspects of t he sensor, namely, sensitivity and operational range, and yielded corr esponding optimal design parameters. The optimal distance sensor analy zed illustrated that it has sufficient resolution to be useful for mos t existing industrial robots.