An integrated robotic laser range sensing system for automatic mapping of wide workspaces

Creating a 3D surface representation of large objects or wide working areas is a tedious and error-prone process using the currently available laser rangefinder technology. The primary problem comes from the fact that these range sensors are able to capture at most one line of points from a given position and orientation. When this process is not properly controlled, registration errors tend to degrade the measurement accuracy significantly; this is revealed to be critical in telerobotic operations where occupancy models are built directly from these range measurements. The paper presents the implementation of a prototype that has been developed to automatize the process of collecting range measurements by integrating a high-end one degree-of-freedom laser rangefinder with a seven degree-of-freedom serial robotic manipulator. The development of a user-friendly interface to control every part of the scanning process is also described, as it significantly improves performance and facilitates data processing and storage.