Infrared sensor based target following device for a mobile robot

A sensory setup and algorithm for target following on the mobile robot is reported. The target detection, including its direction and distance, is achieved by the low-cost infrared transmitter and receiver pair. The transmitted signal is coded so the receiver is free from environmental disturbances. The motion of the follower has obstacle avoidance capability achieved by utilizing an ultrasonic sensor array. The proposed algorithm derives the follower locomotion by adequately fusing the information from both sensor modules. Experimental validation is executed to evaluate the performance the proposed device.