MEMS Scan Technology
Up to now, it has only been possible to develop relatively rudimentary robots that are only able to perform services such as cleaning, building, servicing, security or personal care tasks. But things don't have to stay that way, believe researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Photonic Microsystems IPMS. The scientists have developed an extremely compact scanning technology (LinScan) for ToF (time of flight ) telemeter systems based on production methods from microsystems technology that allows a three-dimensional image acquisition with a flexible scanning rate and thus scanning with an adapted resolution. 3D camera systems equipped with LinScan could enable future generations of robots to roughly search their surroundings for objects that appear in their visual field and to only resolve the objects they are looking for at a higher accuracy. The robot would work with a relatively small volume of data and would still be able to gain a better understanding of its surroundings so as to better interact with everyday objects and our environment.
