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Laser Guided Automated Floor Profiling - FloorWalker

Whaley, Chad
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1491558782298737

Abstract Details

2017, MS, University of Cincinnati, Engineering and Applied Science: Computer Engineering.
When pouring new concrete floors, it is the responsibility of the contractor to verify that the floor upholds a certain standard of flatness and levelness. This standard is set by the application of the floor and type of objects which will be on the floor. The profile of the floor is converted to a series of numbers which describe the floor known as F-Numbers. The F-Numbers are acquired through measurements of different elevations throughout the floor. Current methods of gathering these measurements are very expensive, time consuming and taxing on the operator of the devices. They require the user to walk around a floor with the measuring device that records the data. There is need to automate this process and reduce the cost. As a senior design project, an Automated Floor Profiling device was created which was capable of navigation and recording of the necessary data. A script was written to do further analysis on this data and output visual information in form of a GUI showing the profile of certain sections of the floor as well as a rated F-Number. One main flaw with this prototype was that it was incapable of driving in a straight line. Due to this limitation, the resulting data was deemed inaccurate. The new system, now a Laser Guided Automated Floor Profiler, is built upon this existing senior design project to rectify the problem of driving straight in order to increase the accuracy of the results. It is a system of lasers setup around a test area and a FloorWalker that follows these lasers. The FloorWalker is equipped with a linear photodiode array sensor on the front of the device. During straight line navigation, a laser will impact this sensor. As the FloorWalker deviates left and right of the reference line, the laser impacts the linear array at a different spot. This deviation is seen and an accurate course correction can be made. Not only do the lasers guide the FloorWalker in a straight line, but they also notify it when to stop and turn around. This aids the FloorWalker in navigation of a whole test area. Tests show that the straight line navigation is significantly improved resulting in a much more accurate direction of travel and a much smaller standard deviation. In this system of lasers, the FloorWalker utilizes StringWalker laser information about 70% of the time for its course correction, and the other 30% of the time utilizes information from the onboard MPU 9150 sensor. The new FloorWalker implementation has a battery life of about 3.6 hours, which can travel about 5,400 ft on one battery charge. This system implementation costs significantly less than current methods of measurement.
Fred Beyette, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Karen Davis, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
Carla Purdy, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
74 p.
Computer Engineering
Flatness; Levelness; Floor Profile; FloorWalker

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Whaley, C. (2017). Laser Guided Automated Floor Profiling - FloorWalker [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1491558782298737

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Whaley, Chad. Laser Guided Automated Floor Profiling - FloorWalker. 2017. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1491558782298737.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Whaley, Chad. "Laser Guided Automated Floor Profiling - FloorWalker." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1491558782298737

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1491558782298737
408
© 2017, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.