On Laser Diode and Wireless Communication Based Interactive Docking for Home Service Robots
Y-S. Tan, L-M Ren and H-B. Zhang
Uninterrupted power supply and automatic docking are significant factors for home service robots working continuously. An interactive and novel docking system for home service robots based on laser diode and radio frequency (RF) wireless communication is presented in the paper. A laser diode is mounted on the robot to detect the location of the station. A self developed laser receiving apparatus is mounted on the station to receive the laser signal from the robot. The station transmits the information to the robot via RF wireless communication. The robot and the station work together and cooperatively to realize the docking procedure. A tolerant mechanical mechanism is adopted for errors correction. Experiments show that the robot can dock with the station successfully. The novel docking method and algorithm can be extended to similar kinds of robots working domestically.
Keywords: Laser diode, wireless communication, automatic docking, home service robots, tolerant mechanical mechanism