SICK Laser Reflector

From MobileRobots Research and Academic Customer Support

Some SICK laser rangefinders (namely the SICK LMS-200 Laser Rangefinder) have the ability to detect special high-reflectance material. If enabled, individual readings that detect this material will indicate this in the data returned from the SICK, and ARIA will store this information with the readings as the readings "extra int".

To enable detection of reflectors by the SICK, use the -laserReflectorBits argument to an ARIA program, or specify LaserReflectorBitsChoice in the robot's parameter file, with by one of the following values: 1ref, 2ref or 3ref. Note, enabling reflector data reduces the maximum value that the SICK can provide for a reading (by reserving part of the data word returned for the reflector information rather than range data), and therefore reduces the effective maximum range of the device; using more bits provides more ability to detect different reflectors, but further limits this value. In most cases, using 1ref is ok.

See also the documentation for ArLMS2xx, ArRangeDevice and ArLaserConnector in the ARIA developer's API reference for more information, and the SICK LMS-200 developers technical manual.

MobileSim can simulate these reflectors; see Laser Reflectors In MobileSim.

Reflector material can be purchased from SICK. Contact a SICK sales representative in your country and ask about appropriate reflectors for your model of laser (e.g. LMS-200): http://www.sick.com/group/EN/home/general/Pages/Worldwide.aspx