Integration and demonstration of MEMS-scanned LADAR for robotic navigation

LADAR is among the pre-eminent sensor modalities for autonomous vehicle navigation. Size, weight, power and cost constraints impose significant practical limitations on perception systems intended for small ground robots. In recent years, the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) developed a LADAR architecture based on a MEMS mirror scanner that fundamentally improves the trade-offs between these limitations and sensor capability. We describe how the characteristics of a highly developed prototype correspond to and satisfy the requirements of autonomous navigation and the experimental scenarios of the ARL Robotics Collaborative Technology Alliance (RCTA) program. In particular, the long maximum and short minimum range capability of the ARL MEMS LADAR makes it remarkably suitable for a wide variety of scenarios from building mapping to the manipulation of objects at close range, including dexterous manipulation with robotic arms. A prototype system was applied to a small (approximately 50 kg) unmanned robotic vehicle as the primary mobility perception sensor. We present the results of a field test where the perception information supplied by the LADAR system successfully accomplished the experimental objectives of an Integrated Research Assessment (IRA).