Sensors for the robot project
My outdoor robot project is coming along nicely, but so far it has been completely blind. I needed to add some sort of sensors.
Eventually I’ll have all sorts of sensors, but I decided the first one should help avoid running into things. I opted to use three Parallax Ping))) ultrasonic sensors. I wanted to mount them at different angles, so I’d get a larger view of potential obstacles. This configuration is set up at 45 degree angles, but the design is flexible so I can replace the angled bracket with another, if it turns out this is not sufficient.
I machined the various parts from 3/8″ delrin (video of some machining operations) then fabricated some mounts for each sensor module from 3mm Sintra (expanded PVC) sheet. Turned out pretty well, I think!
I need to fabricate and program the electronics to drive these three sensors and send messages about object detection, but that will be a topic for another post.