A novel electrooptical proximity sensor for robotics: calibration and active sensing

An electrooptical proximity sensor capable of measuring the distance and two-dimensional orientation of an object's surface is presented. The robustness of the sensor, targeted for utilization in robotic active sensing, is achieved via the development of a novel amplitude-modulated-based electrooptical transducer, an electronic-interface circuit that provides very good noise immunity and a wide dynamic operating range, and an effective multi-region calibration process that significantly improves pose-estimations at near proximities. An experimental setup was designed and implemented for the development and verification of the proposed proximity sensor in a simulated robotic environment. Experimental results using a variety of calibrated surfaces and materials are presented and discussed. It is shown that average accuracies of 0.01 mm and 0.03/spl deg/ can be achieved. The robustness of the proximity sensor is also verified for potential use in grasping objects with a priori noncalibrated surfaces.