The Development of a Full-Field Image Ranger System for Mobile Robotic Platforms

A mobile robot´s ability to rapidly and accurately measure variables in its external environment is vital to its ability to function in that environment. A variety of sensors are available to provide a robot with such information but typically have a trade-off between update rate, accuracy and field of view. Full-field range imaging, where every object in the sensor´s field of view is ranged, offers both a wide field of view and accurate range measurements at update rates greater than existing sensor technologies with similar accuracy and fields of view. This paper outlines the development of a field programmable gate array (FPGA) based mid-distance (0 - 15 m) range imaging system capable of being mounted on mobile robotic platforms. Experimental results are presented giving an indication of the performance of the system.