2024 Volume 42 Issue 4 Pages 373-379
Microwave Doppler sensors commonly used in the auto-door system have been used to navigate a rover. A collimated microwave beam with the angular width of ±3[deg] in a frequency of 24[GHz] has been emitted from the sensor:A equipped with a dish antenna of 30[cm] in diameter. Another sensor: B which works as a detector, has been loaded on the rover. The rover has been so programmed as to make right turn when the microwave signal is more than a specified level and to make left turn when the signal is less than that. Although it is conceivable that light beam is used for the navigation control, the rover can't be navigated by light beam because of its little diffraction even if the interrupting objects are small. In contrast, the method proposed in this study has the advantage of removing a certain degree of influence from interrupting objects such as irregular ground surfaces because microwaves undergo diffraction. In this paper, the base station and the rover were designed and fabricated. In addition, some experiments were performed to confirm the effectiveness of the proposed navigation control for the planetary exploration rover and to investigate the characteristics of microwave beam.
