Modeling a novel laser localization system

A novel laser based localization system is evaluated through mathematical modeling and simulation. The system concept was originally conceived as part of a university design project for use in a mobile robot mining competition. The overall operation of the system is accomplished using just two external beacons to perform triangulation. These rotating beacons emit laser pulses containing angular information; a rotating detector on the vehicle captures and decodes this information. This received data is analyzed in real time to resolve position and orientation. Potential errors may result from inconsistencies in the conversion of the beacon's angular direction to laser frequencies. This can be compounded with errors from resolving angular data from the laser frequencies received by the detector. The rotational frequency of both the beacons, the detector, and the laser beam width are all factors that affect the time of reception, which is another potential source of error and can be used for optimization. The purpose of the model is to analyze parameters such as these in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the localization system and exploit areas of optimization. The model simulates the localization of the robot in static and dynamic conditions to produce data accounting for error, hit time, and position update time. The results obtained are expected to provide insight towards future design improvements.