Rotating IR Sensor System for 2.5D Sensing

This paper describes a new sensor system for improving the accuracy of the range information using multiple IR range sensors. Environment and obstacle sensing is the key issue for mobile robot localization and navigation. Laser scanners cover 180deg and are accurate but too expensive. Radial range sensors such as laser scanners, IR scanners and ultrasonic range sensor rings have blind spots so that a small obstacle not close enough to the sensor may be easily missed. It is necessary to develop a low cost sensor system which covers 360deg with small blind spots. A sensor system with 12 IR range sensors is designed and implemented. The problem of the 2D sensor systems is, they measure the nearby obstacles on a plane where the sensors are located. In order to scan the environment vertically, a 2.5D sensor system is designed and the experimental result shows the effectiveness of the proposed sensor system