DISTANCE SENSOR SYSTEM AND METHOD

• US 20100030380A1
• Filed: 07/19/2007
• Published: 02/04/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 09/01/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vorwerk & Company Interholding Gesellschaft Mit Beschrã¤Nkter Haftung (Vorwerk & Company KG)
• Original Assignee: Neato Robotics, Inc. (Vorwerk & Company KG)
• Inventors: Augenbraun, Joe, Konolige, Kurt, Taylor, Rafael, Pinzarrone, Joseph, Fiebig, Charles, Liu, Yuming, Shah, Pankaj, Donaldson, Nick, Khan, Hassaan Moin, Salinas, Leo, Tang, Hua
• Granted Patent: US 8,996,172 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 700/258
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/42 Simultaneous measurement of distance and other co-ordinates indirect measurement G01S17/46
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 17/48 Active triangulation systems, i.e. using the transmission and reflection of electromagnetic waves other than radio waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 2007/4977 including means to prevent or remove the obstruction
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4813 Housing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/4817 relating to scanning
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 7/497 Means for monitoring or calibrating

Abstract

A distance measuring system and method employing a laser distance sensor may have utility in various applications. In accordance with one aspect of the present invention, a laser distance sensor may acquire accurate distance measurements with a short baseline.

Claims

1. A distance sensing system comprising:

a source providing collimated light output;

a sensor operative to detect the output incident on an object;

a rotating mount to which said source and said sensor are attached;

said rotating mount being rotatable through an arbitrary number of uni-directional rotations; and

an electronics package attached to said rotating mount and coupled to said source and said sensor;

said electronics package executing digital processing to process data acquired by said sensor as said mount rotates.

2. The distance sensing system of claim 1 further comprising a synchronization mechanism to synchronize intermittent operation of said source and said sensor.

3. The distance sensing system of claim 2 wherein said synchronization mechanism is an optical encoder.

4. The distance sensing system of claim 1 wherein the digital processing comprises executing triangulation calculations.

5. The distance sensing system of claim 1 wherein the digital processing comprises executing sub-pixel interpolation.

6. The distance sensing system of claim 1 wherein the digital processing comprises computing 4000 data points per second.

7. The distance sensing system of claim 1 wherein said source is a laser.

8. The distance sensing system of claim 7 wherein the output has a wavelength of approximately 650 nm.

9. The distance sensing system of claim 1 wherein said sensor is a complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor sensor.

10. A robotic device comprising:

a drive mechanism;

an electronics module to provide instructions to said drive mechanism to position the robotic device in an operating environment;

an optical assembly to provide distance data to said electronics module, said distance data related to a position of the robotic device relative to an object in the operating environment and influencing the instructions provided to said drive mechanism;

said optical assembly comprising;

a source providing collimated light output;

a sensor operative to detect the output incident on an object in the operating environment;

a rotating mount to which said source and said sensor are attached;

said rotating mount being rotatable through an arbitrary number of uni-directional rotations; and

an electronics package attached to said rotating mount and coupled to said source and said sensor;

said electronics package executing digital processing to process data acquired by said sensor as said mount rotates to generate the distance data.

11. The robotic device of claim 10 wherein said optical assembly further comprises a synchronization mechanism to synchronize intermittent operation of said source and said sensor.

12. The robotic device of claim 11 wherein said synchronization mechanism is an optical encoder.

13. The robotic device of claim 10 wherein the digital processing comprises executing triangulation calculations.

14. The robotic device of claim 10 wherein the digital processing comprises executing sub-pixel interpolation.

15. The robotic device of claim 10 wherein the digital processing comprises computing 4000 data points per second.

16. The robotic device of claim 10 wherein said source is a laser.

17. The robotic device of claim 16 wherein the output has a wavelength of approximately 650 nm.

18. The robotic device of claim 10 wherein said sensor is a complimentary metal-oxide semiconductor sensor.

19. The robotic device of claim 10 wherein said optical assembly further comprises a transmitter coupled to said electronics package;

said transmitter to transmit the distance data to said electronics module wirelessly.

20. A vehicle comprising:

a distance sensing system operative to generate distance data associated with a distance to an object within a range of the vehicle;

said distance sensing system comprising;

a source providing collimated light output;

a sensor operative to detect the output incident on the object;

a rotating mount to which said source and said sensor are attached;

said rotating mount being rotatable through an arbitrary number of uni-directional rotations; and

an electronics package attached to said rotating mount and coupled to said source and said sensor;

said electronics package executing digital processing to process data acquired by said sensor as said mount rotates to generate the distance data; and

an electronics module to receive the distance data from said distance sensing system.

21. The vehicle of claim 20 wherein said distance sensing system further comprises a synchronization mechanism to synchronize intermittent operation of said source and said sensor.

22. The vehicle of claim 21 wherein said synchronization mechanism is an optical encoder.

23. The vehicle of claim 20 wherein the digital processing comprises executing triangulation calculations.

24. The vehicle of claim 20 further comprising a display to display distance related information.

25. The vehicle of claim 24 wherein said display displays a representation of an object in a position relative to a representation of said vehicle.