An improved sensor framework of mono-cam based laser rangefinder

Monocular camera based laser rangefinder is an economical strategy for retrieving the distance data. It is released from a burden of buying the expensive laser scanning sensor. In this paper, we proposed an improved framework for application on the mobile robots. This framework addressed the disadvantages in the original design. We chose the carpentry board instead of the cardboard to enhance the mechanical strength, and applied the curve fitting technology to compensate for the distance computational error induced by the lens distortion. Experiments on the mobile robots evaluated the performance of the proposed sensor framework. The results show that the improved mechanical structure can avoid the motion vibration of the mobile robot and curve fitting method can decrease the computational error especially for the case that the distance between sensor and object is much larger.