An omnidirectional range sensor for environmental 3-D reconstruction

In this paper we present a patented sensor devoted to the high precision 3D omnidirectional reconstruction. This sensor is based on the profilometer approach, but exploits a catadioptric system to get a very large field of view. After a theoretical presentation of the sensor's functionality and an analysis on its sensitivity, a designing strategy has been defined. Indoor and outdoor environmental reconstructions performed by a prototypal implementation of the sensor are also shown.