Laser Technology & Robotics help please

[David Southwell 0]

I have no knowledge whatsoever of how to build design and make use of advanced laser technology.

 

I am home based experimenter in Bristol UK and interested in Robotics.

 

 

My current project is designing and then building a robot which will have the capability of working inside models using a combination of technologies.

 

The most important ingredient of a successful design is a Locational Position System.

 

So the first problem I have to solve is the development a position co-ordinate system which will enable me to identify, with a high degree of accuracy, the precise position of objects, within a model under construction. Within the model mini robots are brought in and secured to solid but temporary structures. They are really like mini lathe beds but I call them Toolhead Support Modules. Toolheads are powered by a miniature hydraulic systems using stepper motors to pressurise the hydraulic feed so they can be capable of machining all types of materials. The movement of the tools is through control of the Toolhead Support Modules. Desired machining accuracy is .01mm.

 

The design envisages multiple toolheads capable of both additive and subtractive construction techniques. Now going to the problem which I believe can be solved using variants of laser technology and particularly laser interferometry. Hopefully someone might be willing to help me a little.

 

 

The basic idea to start with a fixed grid of lasers able to identify the precise position of something which for the sake of a name I will call LRPI [Laser Recognisable Position Indicators]. LRPIs are be located on Robots, toolheads, robotic arms.

 

The design of LRPIs is totally open to development .

 

We start with a set of lasers and incrementally add LRPIs. LRPIs may be placed in position by a robot. However I do not want to rely on the robot to tell us where the LRPI is actually location. I want the Location Position System [LPS] to determine the exact location of the LRPI. As build takes place some lines of sight between the original set of lasers and desirable locations for LRPIs may be obscured so the Robot will need add more lasers to the grid and their position will need to be precisely identify so they can assist in identifying the location of additional LRPIs. I hope this all makes sense!!

 

To get to the core questions. How could this be done? What is the most appropriate technology? What is the best design for an LRPI and for the lasers system? How can I build such a system? Any ideas anyone? BTW the robot is to be called Gulliver, be designed to be scaleable from a cube of 250mm to whatever size you like. The first example will be build to a cube of 1000mm.

 

Thanks in advance for any help

 

David Southwell