Mobile robots benefit from some form of bumper or obstacle detection system to avoid damage themselves or their surroundings. This design detects obstacles by scanning the area with IR beams.

A semicircular array of IR LEDs driven by a microcontroller sends out a sequence of IR pulses. An IR receiver with a wide receiving aperture detects any reflected IR light from obstacles in the illuminated area. The receiver has a digital output so that it either detects the presence of reflected light or not. The microcontroller knows from tim¬ing information which of the IR diodes sent out the detected light pulse and therefore in which direction the obstacle is.

We can build a special interface to the scanner hardware but why not use one that’s already available?
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Read more? Download the full article for free as a PDF file in the 'Attachment' section below. Lots of fun with this project!