A Laser Intensity Based Autonomous Docking Approach for Mobile Robot Recharging in Unstructured Environments

Abstract

Autonomous recharging is a fundamental requirement for autonomous mobile robots in order to allow them to work continuously without human intervention, and autonomous docking to a charging station is a challenging yet promising research area. In particular, the docking task becomes even more complicated in unstructured human environments when the charging station’s location is not fixed and when there are dynamic obstacles moving around. This paper presents a laser intensity based autonomous docking approach, which allows a mobile robot to recharge its battery autonomously in unstructured environments. Laser reflection intensity for a self-adhesive reflective tape is quantitatively investigated, and the sufficient/necessary conditions for successful reflector detection are discussed. Using the proposed reflector detection technique, the charging station can be easily distinguished from similar objects in an unstructured environment. Comparing to the traditional docking methods, the developed approach is easier to implement and can significantly improve the reliability of autonomous docking and recharging. Extensive experiments were conducted to verify the effectiveness of the developed autonomous docking approach.