Example of use of HOKYUO URG-04LX-UG01

The basic procedure of connecting and acquiring data.

Contents

Measurement parameters initialization

The URG-04LX-UG01 has angular resolution of 1024 steps per 360 degrees. Its measurement range is from step 44 to 725 (-120°,120°), on the front of the sensor is step 384.

start_point = 44;
end_point = 725;

The measurements can be merged (grouped) into clusters by n steps. For ex. if cluster = 3, the sensor will send a minimum value from every 3 steps.

cluster = 1;

Concatenate the command for measuring. In this example, 2-character encoding is used (maximum distance value is 4096 mm), hence parameter GS. For 3-char. encoding use parameter GD.

scan_cmd=strcat('GS',...
     num2str(start_point,'%04g'),...
     num2str(end_point,'%04g'),...
     num2str(cluster,'%02g'));

Connecting

First, create serial port object and set its parameters. You have to replace COM7 with corresponding port name. To see available ports, use instrhwinfo or Device Manager.

URG=serial('COM7','baudrate',115200);
set(URG,'Timeout',1);
set(URG,'InputBufferSize',50000);
set(URG,'Terminator','LF');

Then open communication. It's a good practice to introduce delay when using serial communication.

fopen(URG);
pause(0.1);

Acquiring data

1. Turn the laser on and flush the response from the sensor.

fprintf(URG,'BM');
pause(0.1);

while(URG.BytesAvailable~=0)
    fgetl(URG);
end

2. Send the command for measuring, wait for response, then flush echo and status information. If you don't need a time stamp, you can flush it as well. Follows a stream of distances from the sensor ended by two byte terminator LFLF.

fprintf(URG,scan_cmd);

while(URG.BytesAvailable==0)
    pause(0.001);
end

fgetl(URG); % echo
fgetl(URG); % status

timestamp=decodeSCIP_timestamp(fgetl(URG)); % 24bit timer, 1ms resolution

data=[];
while(URG.BytesAvailable>2)
    data=[data;range_convert(fgetl(URG))];
end

fgetl(URG); % LFLF

3. Turn the laser off and flush the response from the sensor.

pause(0.1);
fprintf(URG,'QT');
pause(0.1);

while(URG.BytesAvailable~=0)
    fgetl(URG);
end

Disconnecting

Close communication

fclose(URG);

Appendix: Plotting acquired data

The measurement data don't include any information about the steps/angles, it's only an array of distances. Based on cluster, start_step and end_step, the corresponding angles must be computed.

angles=(((start_point-384):cluster:(end_point-384))*2*pi/1024)';

After converting these polar coordinates into Cartesian system in meters, the data can be plotted for ex. as a scatter plot.

data_xy(:,1)=-(data/1000).*sin(angles);
data_xy(:,2)=(data/1000).*cos(angles);

scatter(data_xy(:,1),data_xy(:,2),'r.');
grid on
axis equal;
axis([-4.25 4.25 -4.25 4.25])
shg

Published with MATLAB® R2016a