Improvement of a measurement system for reflectors that are
used for navigation of mobile units

Abstract: Under the second half of the 80's a laserbased navigation system was
developed at the Computer Science and Electrical Engineering department at
Luleå University of technology (LTU). This system is built on preprogrammed
maps of reflectors that the robots are using to calculate their position and
heading.

Danaher Motion Särö AB has developed a system to create the maps by measuring
the position of the reflectors, earlier this was done by hand. This system is
implemented in a program called AutoSurveyor II that can be used on vehicles
with steer-drive (SD) three wheel configuration.

In the research project MICA (Mobile Internet Connected Assistant), at LTU
and University of Lapland in Rovaniemi, Finland, this navigation system is
used on an electrical wheelchair with differential steering. In this project
there is a need to be able to run AutoSurveyor on the wheelchair and
therefore this work was made.

This master thesis provide an improvement of AutoSurveyor II whichm akes it
possible to run it on mobile robots with differential and quad steering
systems. It also implements the use of a gyro to improve the odometry of a
vehicle which (will be showed) is a must for using the program on the
wheelchair. Additionally improvements of AS2 includes a network interface
making it compatible with next generation of controlling hardware from
Danaher and GUI changes.