A COMPACT, LOW POWER TWO-AXIS SCANNING LASER RANGEFINDER

FOR MOBILE ROBOTS

Charles F. Bergh, Brett A. Kennedy, Larry H. Matthies, Andrew E. Johnson

Jet Propulsion Laboratory

California Institute of Technology
4800 Oak Grove Drive, Pasadena, CA 91109

Abstract: By combining a high speed, highly accurate single point laser range sensor
with a custom high speed, compact scanning mechanism, a sensor has been developed
which can provide high resolution images at a rate sufficient to support autonomous
navigation and building mapping. The design is simple and elegant using only two
actuators and a single mirror arranged in a gyroscope-style layout. The prototype can
resolve distances from 0 to 10m with a variance of less than 1mm and has a perceptual
range of 360 continuous degrees HFOV and –10 to +15 degrees VFOV. Power
consumption is less than 10W in full-scan mode, and the scanner occupies a volume of
less than 3,100cm3. These features make it attractive for use in mobile robot systems
where both power and space are at a premium.

1. INTRODUCTION payload is limited by the number of sensors that will

fit on the chassis along with the batteries and
Urban Robot, or “Urbie,” was developed as part of processors.
the Tactical Mobile Robots program funded by the
Defense Advanced Research Project Agency. The Vision, particularly stereo vision, is a common
goal of the program is to develop small, rugged sensing modality for mobile robots. However, robots
mobile robots capable of autonomous or tele- in the Tactical Mobile Robot program are tasked to
operated urban reconnaissance. Unmanned operate in a wide variety of environments including
reconnaissance robots may reduce the danger posed lighting conditions such as direct sunlight, shadows,
to response teams of urban crises such as disaster darkness, or smoke. These conditions make vision
response or hostage situations by providing imagery difficult or impossible. Since perception is a
or maps before personnel are deployed. At the end of cornerstone for autonomous systems, enabling a
1999, the autonomous capabilities of Urbie included reliable high-speed sensing modality to complement
stereo vision-based obstacle avoidance at up to 80 vision for navigation and mapping is a key challenge.
cm/sec, visual servoing to user-designated goals, and Scanning laser rangefinders (or scanners) are well
vision-guided stair climbing. In future work, the suited to operate in these conditions, as they are
objectives are to extend these capabilities to active rather than passive like vision. Combined
nighttime operations and to add indoor mapping together, scanners and vision form a complimentary,
(Matthies, et al., 2000). redundant perception system.

The overall weight and size of Urbie are driven by While a good deal of work has been done with the
the program requirement that the robot be carried and goal of equipping robots with laser rangefinders, the
deployed by one person. It weighs approximately vast majority has been focused on larger vehicles or
20kg and is 60cm long. The complexion of the employed scanners too large to be practical for robots
the size of Urbie. Some highlights of prior research from a mission perspective, the robot should have the
include detecting navigational hazards on Nomad flexibility to incrementally build up maps as it is
(Vandapel, et al., 1999), terrain mapping on DanteII moving or map a large area while the robot is
(Bares and Wettergreen, 1999), multi-robot and 3D stopped. For this task, the scanner must have a
mapping (Thrun, 2000) and path generation and reasonably useful range and have a horizontal field of
following with Pioneer robots (Vaughan, 2000). Most view (HFOV or pan) of 360 degrees. Continuous pan
commercial scanners were developed for industrial would be advantageous.
applications and are bulky and power hungry. This
work focuses on developing a compact, light, low Autonomous navigation at higher speeds requires
power scanner that achieves the accuracy and range further look ahead. How far to look ahead is a
of its commercial brethren. function of the reaction time of the robot and of the
speed at which the robot is moving. Given a constant
Section 2 summarizes the design goals and reaction time, a slower speed will require less look
constraints for the laser scanner. A system overview ahead than faster speeds. This implies the need for a
of the prototype scanner is presented in section 3. scanner with a maximum range to match the
Preliminary performance data is presented in section maximum speed of the robot and the ability to change
4. Section 5 summarizes the contributions of this the angle at which the laser intersects the ground
work and key areas for future work. plane (VFOV or tilt). Furthermore, indoor mapping
would be enhanced by a variable tilt angle – allowing
more detailed floor models to be constructed.
2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
High-speed navigation drives the requirements for
resolution. The pixel size and spacing must be fine
2.1 Design Constraints and Objectives enough to detect a nontraversable obstacle at
distances great enough that the path planner can
The first two constraints are size and power: the navigate around it instead of simply reacting to it.
scanner must fit within the space and power budgets This also drives the resolution of the beam
afforded by the chassis. Since Urbie is autonomous, positioning sensors and the size of the field of view.
all perception, computation, and power resources are Computing capacity must also be considered as the
carried on board the robot. The mobility chassis is an amount of data increases.
Urban II tracked platform developed at IS Robotics.
The chassis is approximately 60cm long, 50cm wide Requiring the laser range sensor to be eye safe is a
and 17cm tall with roughly 13,000cm3 of payload practical concern. However, since lower power levels
space. A 20-cell NiCd battery pack provides a total degrade sensor range and accuracy characteristics, it
power budget of 120Wh. Power consumption with is important not to overly limit the laser power level.
the robot standing still is approximately 75W, and the
power required for driving varies with the terrain. When the specifics for Urbie were considered, the
The robot and all subsystems must be able to survive following list of design objectives emerged:
the shock of being thrown or dropped modest
distances. • Smallest possible footprint
• Lowest possible power consumption
The scanner has three main functions – detect • 0 to 10m range with centimeter accuracy
navigational obstacles, map indoor areas, and • 2 DOF: 360° HFOV; -15° to +30° VFOV
estimate robot position indoors by estimating the • Programmable pixel spacing up to 50mm at 10m
scan-to-scan motion. To map indoor areas efficiently • Horizontal scan speed no less than 10Hz

Ultrasonic
Motor
Miniature
Gearhead

Slip rings

Mirror

Pan Motor

Electronics
Enclosure

Laser Range
Sensor
Encoder

Figure 1: Two-Axis Scanning Laser Rangefinder. (a) Prototype (b) CAD cross-section
• Full 3D scan in 10 seconds The AccuRange 4000 from Acuity Research was
• Variable sampling frequency selected as the laser range sensor. It provides highly
• Class I Laser Safety accurate and repeatable range readings at sampling
rates capable of meeting the needs of autonomous
navigation. Acuity’s rangefinding technique is based
2.2 Commercially Available Scanners on a patented modulated beam transmission and
detection technique that differs from conventional
Table 1 lists the commercially available scanning pulse time-of-flight. The times to be measured are
laser rangefinders that were considered. The extremely short, and the electronic circuits measuring
predominant ranging method is pulse time-of-flight. this time suffer from thermal drift thus degrading
A laser beam pulse is emitted and reflected off an range accuracy and repeatability. Acuity addresses
object. The scanner’s receiver detects the reflected this problem by measuring frequency based on
light energy, and the time between transmission and several periods instead of the direct travel time of the
reception is measured and converted to distance. No beam. Modulating the emitted laser with the signal
one commercially available scanner met all the from the collected return light forms a local
design criteria outlined in the previous section. oscillator, and it is the frequency of this modulation
that is measured. A calibration look-up table maps a
measurement triplet of frequency, intensity, and
3. DEVELOPED SCANNER sensor temperature into a range reading (Clark,
1994).
It was decided to design and build a custom scanning
laser rangefinder to meet the previously outlined The sampling rate is programmable up to 50kHz, and
requirements of the Tactical Mobile Robot program. two operating powers – 3mW and 20mW – are user
The result is a system comprised of a two-axis selectable. The AccuRange 4000 was reduced to the
scanning mechanism developed at JPL and smallest possible footprint. Modifications included
rangefinding optics developed by Acuity Research. reducing the Fresnel lens of the collection aperture
As shown in Figure 1, the scanner is arranged similar from 3 to 2 inches in diameter, reducing the focal
to a gyroscope with a pan motor to continuously length to 2 inches, and changing the form factor of
rotate the tilt axis. The optical axis of the laser range the electronics from a single 3x6 inch board to two
sensor and the rotation axis of the pan motor are 3x3 inch boards which mount in an “L”
collinear. With this configuration only one mirror is configuration. The modified optics are shown in
needed to generate 3D images. Figure 1b. These modifications reduced the
guaranteed range from 15m to 10m but did not have
Two modes of operation are possible – fixed tilt- an adverse effect on accuracy or repeatability.
angle scan mode (2D) or full-scan mode (3D).
Commanding the mirror to a fixed tilt angle produces
a radial scan that is useful for high-speed applications 3.2 Scanning Mechanism
such as obstacle detection, map building, and position
estimation. By stepping the tilt angle after each full The laser range sensor is mounted within a scanning
rotation of the pan axis, a 3D scan is produced which mechanism developed at JPL. A cutaway of the
is useful for slower-speed applications such as 3D scanner is shown in Figure 1b. The prototype unit is
mapping and landmark recognition. 130mm wide, 160mm long, 150mm tall – occupying
approximately 3,100 cm3. There are two degrees of
freedom – continuous 360-degree rotation on the pan
3.1 Laser Range Sensor axis and limited rotation on the tilt axis. The design

Table 1: Comparison of commercially available scanning laser rangefinders

Manufacturer Acuity Sick Riegl Riegl Cyra
Model - AR4000-LIR LMS-200-30106 LMS-Z210 LMS-Q140i-80 Cyrax 2400
Mass kg 1.6 4.5 13 6 29.6
3
Volume cm 2,600 4,500 15,000 14,800 63,300
Power W 23.5 17.5 54 30 125
HFOV degrees ± 150 ± 180 ± 170 ± 40 ± 20
VFOV degrees - - ± 40 - ± 20
Spacing degrees 0.18 0.5 0.24 0.14 0.04
Divergence mRad 0.5 5 3 3 0.06
Horizontal scan rate Hz 45 40 10 10 2
Sample frequency Hz 100 - 50,000 27,000 5,500 5,500 800
Range m 0 to 15 2 to 15 0 to 8 0 to 8 0.5 to 50
Deviation (at max range) mm 0.5 5 15 15 6
Laser safety class - IIIb I I I II
Ranging method Time of flight Time of flight Time of flight Time of flight Time of flight
Mechanism Rotating mirror Polygonal Mirror Rotating Sensor Polygonal Mirror Dual Mirror
incorporates a brush-commutated, frameless, thru- By the law of reflection, when the mirror moves 1
shaft DC motor for the pan axis and an ultrasonic mechanical degree, the laser beam moves 2 degrees.
motor for actuation on the tilt axis. Besides being So a mirror angle of 45 mechanical degrees on the tilt
very compact, an ultrasonic motor has the advantage axis would correspond to 90 optical degrees. When
of being inherently self-braking so that when power this is combined with the 3:1 planetary gear, a virtual
is removed the rotor and stator lock together. This 3:2 gear ratio is seen by a 1% linear, single-turn
feature is key in reducing power and control effort potentiometer. To reduce system components, the 8-
needed to maintain a desired tilt angle. A comparable bit analog to digital converter (ADC) used for
DC motor with a brake would be at least a factor of 3 converting sensor temperature on the HSIF was
larger. A 3:1 miniature planetary gearhead is multiplexed so the tilt angle could be sensed as well.
mounted between the ultrasonic motor and the A hard stop provides a calibration point for the tilt
mirror. A similar gearhead is mounted between the mirror but is outside the region of interest of normal
mirror and the linear potentiometer that is used to operation. In order not to sacrifice resolution or
sense tilt angle. The thru-shaft motor was chosen to saturate the ADC, a two-mode amplifier was used to
allow the optical axis of the laser range sensor to be allow coarse position sensing over the entire range of
collinear with the axis of rotation of the pan axis. motion of the mirror and fine position sensing over
the normal operational range of the mirror. Since one
Typical scanning mechanisms use free-spinning bit of the ADC is dropped for noise suppression, a tilt
polygonal mirrors and sense the mirror angle at each resolution of 0.30 mechanical degrees (0.60 optical
sample. Here a single, flat, first-surface mirror is degrees) is realized in fine positioning mode. The
mounted collinear with the tilt axis and perpendicular gain to the instrumentation amplifier is selectable
to the optical axis. This design reduces the pointing through an analog switch and controlled by a digital
function to the familiar polar to Cartesian output.
transformation. The flat mirror consumes less space,
but the mirror angle must be closed-loop controlled. VxWorks serves as the real-time operating system
and provides hard real-time control of scanner
3.3 Control functions. All scanner control algorithms and the
mapping from sensor data to range data are executed
The High Speed Interface (HSIF) from Acuity is an in software.
interface board resident on Urbie’s navigation CPU
and serves as a communication bus and buffer for
samples from the AccuRange 4000. Samples are in
an 8-byte format that includes a 19-bit range value 4. PRELIMINARY PERFORMANCE
and 1-byte values for amplitude, ambient light, sensor
temperature as well as encoder and index pulse data A prototype was constructed and has been used for
for the pan motor. The complete data structure is characterizing the system capabilities. Currently,
collected each sampling period allowing for precise imaging is only being done in line-scan mode while
synchronization between the range data, position control and sensing are being improved for the tilt
data, and other external events. The HSIF buffer axis. Table 2 lists the properties of the prototype
holds 2,000 samples and stops sampling when the scanner.
buffer is full to prevent data corruption. The HSIF
also includes a variable voltage control for two DC Table 2: Properties of the prototype scanner
motors.
Parameter Units Value
Eight digital outputs and four digital inputs on Mass kg 2.2
3
Urbie’s navigational CPU are used to control the Volume cm 3,100
ultrasonic motor, power management for the scanner Power W 9.2
components, and other scanner functions. The speed HFOV degrees 360 continuous
VFOV degrees -10 to +15
of the ultrasonic motor is set with a trimmer
Horizonal Spacing degrees 0.044
potentiometer, and only the direction needs to be Vertical Spacing degrees 0.6
commanded. Divergence mRad 0.5
Horizontal scan rate Hz 10
A 512-line, two-phase quadrature encoder is coupled Vertical scan rate deg/sec 1,500
to the pan axis with a 4:1 gear ratio giving 2048 lines Sample frequency Hz 100 to 50k
per revolution. A further factor of four is gained in Range m 0 to 10
the resolution since the HSIF measures each phase Deviation (1 sigma) mm 1
Laser safety class - IIIb
change from the quadrature encoder. This results in
Ranging method - Time of flight
an angular resolution of 0.044 degrees for the pan Mechanism - Single Mirror
axis. A photo-interrupter generates an index pulse at
the zero pan angle.
4.1 Power Consumption
There was an offset of 76mm between the actual and
Power draw was measured by connecting a watt perceived range, and standard deviation was less than
meter in-line with the power supply. The average 1mm for all distances. At 10m, the scanner still
power for each component was measured separately. receives sufficient return energy to make an accurate
Then the power consumption for the line-scan mode measurement. Unfortunately the laser test area was
was measured. only 10m, so longer distance tests were not possible.

The ultrasonic motor driver requires a 24VDC supply Next the same cardboard target was placed at
and draws 14.2W at 100% duty cycle. Regulated approximately 3m, and the incidence angle between
12VDC power is supplied to the motor driver side of the target and the beam was varied from 0 to 89
the HSIF for the pan motor which draws 2W at 5Hz degrees. 1,000 samples were taken at each angle. The
or 3.8W at 10Hz. The pan motor speed is set using a results are shown in Figure 3. The range accuracy
variable voltage output on the HSIF. The laser range and standard deviation are unaffected by the angle of
sensor, the sensing electronics, and the peripheral incidence until 70 degrees after which the data
electronics run on regulated 5VDC and draw 4.8W. become increasingly unreliable.
All power is relay-switched so that individual
components may be shut off when not needed 100.0 3.0
Range Error
thereby conserving power. Std Deviation
90.0 2.5

In line-scan mode, 20ms is required to move the tilt 80.0 2.0

mirror to the desired angle. Once the desired angle is
70.0 1.5
achieved, the power relay to the ultrasonic motor is
opened. Then a complete 360-degree scan is made on 60.0 1.0
the pan axis. The average running power observed
was 7.2W. 50.0 0.5

40.0 0.0
From these results, the power consumption for the 0.0 15.0 30.0 45.0 60.0 75.0 90.0
full-scan mode can be reasonably estimated by Incidence Angle (°)

adding the power consumed by the ultrasonic motor.

In full-scan mode, a complete 360-degree scan is Figure 3: Range error and deviation vs incidence
taken at 2-degree increments from –10 to +14 angle
degrees on the tilt axis. The ultrasonic motor will
have a duty cycle of approximately 12% consuming
2W – resulting in an approximate system power of 4.3 Line-Scan Mode
9.2W for full-scan mode.
Setting the tilt axis to a fixed angle and rotating the
pan motor through one revolution produces line-scan
4.2 Range Performance images of the surrounding scene. In our application,
line scans will be used primarily for detecting
In order to characterize the range performance of the navigation hazards and constructing maps. Figure 4
scanner the laser beam was set to a fixed position by shows how successive line scans can be registered
disconnecting the pan motor and the tilt motor. First, and built up into a map. Figure 4a through Figure 4c
range accuracy and deviation were evaluated by show line scans from the beginning, middle, and end
placing a cardboard target at increasing distances of the path respectively. Figure 4d shows the map
from 50mm to 10m. The target was at normal produced with scan matching algorithms developed
incidence, and 1,000 samples were collected at each by Thrun (2000). The larger room is approximately
distance. The results are shown in Figure 2. 5m by 6m. The passage near point B is 2m wide.

100.0 3.0
Range Error 5. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
90.0 Std Deviation 2.5

80.0 2.0
By making the most critical element – the laser range
sensor – as small as possible, a precision scanning
70.0 1.5 mechanism was built to meet the space and power
60.0 1.0
payload requirements posed by the Tactical Mobile
Robot project. The result is a high speed, compact,
50.0 0.5 rugged two-axis scanner that is capable of supporting
a variety of roles including hazard detection and
40.0 0.0
0 2 4 6 8 10
indoor mapping.
Range (m)
The last step in completing the prototype is adding
Figure 2: Range error and deviation vs. distance the full-scan mode capability. Increasing the
resolution of the tilt axis position sensor and reducing Conference on Robotics and Automation, San
power consumption are also high priority items. Francisco, CA, April 2000.
Currently, the laser is occluded at downlook angles Vandapel, N., S. Moorehead, and W. Whittaker
greater than 10 degrees by the pan motor. Reducing (1999). Preliminary Results on the use of
the diameter of the pan motor will alleviate this and Stereo, Color Cameras and Laser Sensors in
reduce the footprint of the scanner. Improving the Antarctica. International Symposium on
packaging in other areas will reduce the scanner Experimental Robotics, March, 1999.
footprint as well. Before the scanner can be fielded Vaughan R., K. Stoy, G. Sukhatme, and M. Mataric
on an outdoor robot, a protective cover will need to (2000). Blazing a trail: Insect-inspired resource
be added to the system. Eye safety is also a concern transportation by a robot team. Proceedings of
that must be addressed if the scanner is to be used in the Fifth International Conference on
populated areas. Distributed Autonomous Robot Systems,
Knoxville, TN, October 4-6 2000.
REFERENCES

Bares, J., and D. Wettergreen (1999). Dante II: ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Technical Description, Results and Lessons
Learned. International Journal of Robotics The research described in this paper was carried out
Research, Vol. 18, No. 7, 621-649. by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute
Clark R. (1994). Scanning rangefinder with range to of Technology, and was sponsored by the Defense
frequency conversion. US Patent 5,309,212. Advanced Research Projects Agency through an
Matthies, L., et al (2000). A Portable, Autonomous, agreement with the National Aeronautics and Space
Urban Reconnaissance Robot. 6th International Administration. Reference herein to any specific
Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems commercial product, process, or service by trade
(IAS-6), Venice, Italy, July 2000. name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does
Thrun, S. (2000). “A Real-Time Algorithm for not constitute or imply its endorsement by the United
Mobile Robot Mapping with Applications to States Government or the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Multi-Robot and 3D Mapping,” International California Institute of Technology.

(a) (b) (c)

B
A

(d)
Figure 4: Indoor mapping. (a)-(c) Single line scans (d) Map built from line scans