| CPC G01S 7/4972 (2013.01) [G05D 1/024 (2013.01)] | 22 Claims |
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1. A light-curtain calibration method for an autonomous mobile robot (AMR), comprising:
an AMR having a light-curtain generation system comprising a laser range scanner in fixed orientation relative to a scanner support;
the scanner support having one or more surfaces arranged to downwardly reflect a beam from the scanner to generate one or more scanning planes
and a processor, wherein the processor approximates and stores angles and positions of the one or more reflective surfaces and a scanner height above the ground plane; and
the processor determines calibrated values including:
generating one or more scanning planes and processing received scanner data:
calculating a ground plane height and determining the gradient of a cost function associated with the angles and positions of the one or more reflective surfaces and the scanner height from the scanner data;
iteratively adjusting the stored values representing the angles and positions of the one or more reflective surfaces and the scanner height in a direction that follows the steepest descent of the cost function until the change in the cost function is within a tolerance value to thereby determine calibrated values; and
the AMR employing the calibrated values during operation to determine whether an object is detected, continuing operation unchanged if no object is detected, and modifying operation if the object is detected by the light curtain using the calibrated values, wherein modifying operation comprises slowing, stopping, or otherwise altering navigation of the AMR.
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