Plan-N-Scan: A Robotic System for Collision-Free Autonomous Exploration and Workspace Mapping

  • Authors:

  • Pamela Renton;Michael Greenspan;Hoda A. Elmaraghy;Hassen Zghal

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Mechanical Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada L8S 4L7;National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1A 0R6;Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) Centre, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada N9B 3P4;Intelligent Manufacturing Systems (IMS) Centre, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada N9B 3P4

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Intelligent and Robotic Systems
  • Year:
  • 1999

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Abstract

This paper presents a sensor-based robotic system, called Plan-N-Scan, for collision-free, autonomous explorationand workspace mapping, using a wrist-mounted laser range camera. This system involves gaze planning with collision-freesensor positioning in a static environment, resulting in a 3-D map suitable for real-time collision detection. This work wasinitially motivated by the great demand for autonomous exploration systems in the remediation of buried but leaking tankscontaining hazardous nuclear waste. Plan-N-Scan uses two types of representations: a spherical model of the manipulator anda weighted voxel map of the workspace. In addition to providing efficient collision detection, the voxel map allows theincorporation of different types of spatial occupancy information. The mapping of unknown sections of the workspace isachieved by either target or volume scanning. Target scanning incorporates a powerful A*-based search, alongwith a viewing position selection strategy, to incrementally acquire scans of the scene and use them to capture targets, even ifthey are not immediately viewable by the range camera. Volume scanning is implemented as an iterative process whichautomatically selects scan targets, then employs the target scanning process to scan these targets and explore the selectedworkspace volume. The performance and reliability of the system was demonstrated through simulation and a number ofexperiments involving a real robot system. The ability of the Plan-N-Scan system to incrementally acquire range informationand successfully scan both targets and workspace volumes was demonstrated.