Digital Control Theory Application and Signal Processing in a Laser Scanning System Applied for Mobile Robotics

Positioning technologies are useful in a great number of applications, which are oriented for pick and place robots, manipulation of machine tools, especially on machines oriented for artificial vision and detection systems, such as vision-guided robotic systems and object existence in a limited environment. Due to the high demand of those applications, this chapter presents digital control theory application using a laser positioner, which obtains 3D coordinates in a defined field of view. Using the LM629N-8 motion controller, representing the main digital controller for the motion task of the laser positioner as an active element, which is analyzed via modeling and simulation using Matlab-Simulink. Additionally, this chapter focuses on some of the principal sources of uncertainties that exist in a laser scanning system and mainly on the receptive part of such system, which is driven by a brushed DC motor. The processed signal will be analyzed in different environmental conditions to analyze how it is affected by the instability characteristics of this main actuator.