MINIATURIZED THREE-DIMENSIONAL LASER RANGE FINDER FOR ROBOTIC MANIPULATION OF INDUSTRIAL OBJECTS

THE OBJECTIVE OF THIS PROPOSED RESEARCH IS TO DEVELOP A MINIATURIZED 3-D LASER RANGE FINDER SYSTEM WHICH IS INTEGRATED INTO A ROBOT GRIPPER AND CAN BE UTILIZED FOR VISUAL PERCEPTION AND MANIPULATION OF OBJECTS IN UNSTRUCTURED ENVIRONMENTS. SUCH A CONFIGURATION WILL HAVE AHIGH DEGREE OF MOBILITY AND ALLOW FOR THE ARBITRARY PLACEMENT OF THE SENSOR AT DIFFERENT VIEW POINTS AS NEEDED TO FACILITATE THE OBJECT PERCEPTION PROCESS. SPECIAL EMPHASIS WILL BE PLACED ON DESIGNING A SYSTEM THAT CAN BE READILY USED FOR A WIDE VARIETY OF MANUFACTURING APPLICATIONS. THE ANTICIPATED RESULTS OF THE PHASE I EFFORTWILL BE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PROOF OF PRINCIPLE FOR AND THE REALIZATION OF THE PROPOSED RANGE IMAGING SYSTEM. THE PHASE I ACHIEVEMENTS WILL BE FULLY DOCUMENTED IN A COMPREHENSIVE FINAL REPORT AND VIDEOTAPE DEMONSTRATION. THEPHASE II EFFORT WILL SERVE TO DEVELOP THE AFOREMENTIONED SENSOR PLACEMENT STRATEGIES AND INTEGRATE THESE WITH THE TECHNOLOGICAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS FROM PHASE I INTO A COMPLETE WORKING PROTOTYPE TO BE DEMONSTRATED IN AN EXPERIMENTAL TESTBED WHICH CAN EMULATE SCENARIOS OF THE DESIRED APPLICATIONS OF THE R&D RESULTS. A SUBSTANTIAL CONTRIBUTION TO THE ECONOMIC COMPETITIVENESS OF AMERICAN INDUSTRY WILL BE MADE BY ADVANCING THE STATE OF THE ART IN INTELLIGENT SENSORY SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGY; PARTICULARLY IN THE AREAS OF MANUFACTURING AUTOMATION, SENSOR GUIDED ROBOTICS, OBJECT DETECTION/TRACKING BY ALLOWING FOR A MORE POWERFUL VISUAL PERCEPTION CAPABILITY WHICH CAN ACCOMMODATE EXTREMELY COMPLEX SENSORIMOTOR INTENSIVE TASKS.