Low cost rangemap obtaining for mobile robots based on a triangulation rangefinder

The objective of the present work is the development of a low-cost triangulation rangefinder, capable of providing a cost effective alternative to ultrasonic rangefinders with the superior performance of optical systems. On one hand, light is not reflected, but backscattered by man-made surfaces, thus eliminating the problem of multipath echoes. On the other hand, the divergence of a light beam is much smaller than that of an ultrasonic beam, which allows for higher lateral resolution. In this paper, we show first the measuring technique and the system developed in this work. And then we show the results achieved with this system.