This paper investigates the feasibility of redirecting the field of view (FOV) of a light-based time-of-flight (ToF) ranging device, commonly known as a pulsed lidar, using fixed mirrors and prisms ...for possible future use in robotics. The emphasis is on configurations where the FOV redirection element is positioned beyond the ranging device’s dead zone. A custom made direct ToF ranging device with time-over-threshold (TOT)-based walk error compensation was used to evaluate the effects of the FOV redirecting optics on range measurement accuracy and precision. The tests include redirecting the FOV with a clean prism with anti-reflective (AR) coating on its legs, as well as with a regular and a first surface mirror in both a clean and dusted state. The study finds the prism to be unsuitable due to parasitic reflections, which ruin the ranging data. The clean mirrors were found to have no noticeable effect on ranging accuracy. When they are dusty, mirrors introduce a negative measurement error. This effect is the most pronounced when a mirror is positioned toward the end of the partial dead zone of the ToF rangefinder, but loses influence as the mirror is moved farther away. The error is attributed to the parasitic reflection off dust on the mirror, which reduces the time of detection of the pulse reflected off the real target, and interferes with the walk error compensation by widening the detected pulse.
Research performed on robotic applications has significantly expanded in the last decade, and currently, robotic systems are being utilized for many purposes. To achieve this generalized application ...of robots, researchers have endeavoured to study a wide variety of methods and algorithms in order to properly employ robotic systems in many real-life scenarios. At present, many types of robotic platforms are being employed in various applications, e.g., dual-arm robots, parallel robots, mobile robots, humanoid robots, aerial robots, underwater robots, and micro/nano robots. Moreover, some theoretical tools are specially being used to obtain correct robot performance, e.g., machine learning, artificial intelligence, multi-agent systems, and control and planning theory. The purpose of this reprint is to exhibit the current state of robotic applications. In particular, in addition to introducing novel theories and methods, this reprint is particularly focused on the application of robotic systems in real-life situations. Thus, the presentation of experimental results makes evident the feasibility and usefulness of robotic systems in practical cases. Obviously, this reprint does not intend to exhaustively demonstrate all the current existing robotic applications but rather give an overview of them, revealing the high level of activity in this area. This reprint contains an Editorial, together with 30 contributions in total from countries all around the world, addressing a broad range of robotic applications.
