Advanced Functions of the Scanning Laser Range Sensor for Environment Recognition in Mobile Robots

We have developed scanning laser range sensor called "SOKUIKI" sensor which is ultra-small scanning laser range sensor adopted for various types of mobile robots as we have already published. As a sensor for environment recognition, we thought the sensor must have not only outputting distance data but also another helpful function for mobile robots. So it was considered that what kind of advanced functions should be provided to SOKUIKI sensor. As a result two most important purposes were acquired. 1. Variation on its distance data and method to get the data. 2. The function for prevention of optical interference between sensors. These rolls were installed to the sensor, and confirmed their effect. This paper describes its result and proposes sensor communication interface protocol (SCIP) which is developed as new command system just for SOKUIKI sensor