Mechanical analysis of a vertical scanning system for 3D images acquisition with microcontroller-based electronic design

Herein are presented in detail the tasks that were developed to carry out a project that had as aim updating and improving the perception system of a Pioneer 3-AT mobile robot to enhance its navigation control by means of a mechanical system to let a laser range finder scanning and acquiring 2.5D and 3D images of the robot's environment. The system developed is a mechanism that is able to put in start position and to tilt automatically a laser range finder LMS200 with high precision, because the range of repetitive accuracy is very important to get good images. This precision was obtained with the aid of different parts that work together and with the best performance into its correspondent area; electronic area (control and communication circuits), mechanical area (stepper motor and mechanical design) and informatics area (acquisition and data processing). The system was developed to be an inexpensive device, using the most common elements, as a Microchip's microcontroller, which are easy to program and there are many models to choose the one that could fit our needs and budget, small elements and many job features, for example the PWM module, communication ports by USART and USB, and A/D channels, very important characteristics to control a stepper motor.