Directed power-variable infrared communication for the mini robot Khepera
Matthias Grünewald, Ulrich Rückert, Christian Schindelhauer, Klaus Volbert · PUB – Publications at Bielefeld University (Bielefeld University) · 2003
Communication facilities are important in Robotics if several robots have to work together. In this paper, we describe problems and solutions encountered while de- signing an infrared-based communication device for the mini robot Khepera. In contrast to traditional omnidirectional systems, it features directed, power-variable transmission in eight directions at 23.4 kbps up to a range of 1m . It can differentiate incoming data sig- nals from interference from adjacent sectors and can estimate their direction-of-arrival. We model the transmission over the infrared channel and show how interference influences the reception of the data signals. We also describe methods how to reduce these effects. We have tested the performance of the resulted signal processing in a worst case scenario by simulations and in experiments with a prototype implementation. The resulted module is especially suited for experimental evaluation of ad hoc network protocols and for position estimation.