A 3-d perceptual method based on laser scanner for mobile robot

It is necessary for autonomous navigation of mobile robots to have the ability of terrain reconstruction and analysis in 3-D environment. This paper designs a 3-D perceptual system for a mobile robot based on a 2-D laser scanner LMS291 mounting on a high precision rotating table with horizontal and pitch rotation. A terrain reconstruction method is presented and an elevation map is built for the purpose of terrain analysis. With the analysis of system error and sensor noise, the median filter and Gaussian smoothing filter are adopted in building the elevation map of 3-D environmental surface. It shows that this system has better flexibility for the perception of 3-D environment and can be used for path planning and self-localization of mobile robots in unstructured environment by experiments.