In this article, I go further in the series of articles that explore sensor types used in robotic applications. In another article, I made an overview of infrared sensors while now the main topic is to help users to learn how to interface and programming infrared sensors for different applications like color detection, line following, or distance calculation.
The principle of operation of an infrared sensor is based on infrared light that is reflected when hitting an obstacle. An IR receiver captures the reflected light and the voltage are measured based on the amount of light received.
Infrared sensors are used in a wide range of applications including here proximity robotic applications for distance and object detection, or color detection and tracking.
As a disadvantage, I have to mention that IR sensors have bad performance in strong sunlight and many applications where this type of sensor is used are designed for indoor use. As an advantage, I can include here the low prices of these sensors.
In the following tutorials can be seen how different IR sensors are used for different applications. For example, when an infrared sensor is used for object detection users have to take account of the minimum and maximum range of the sensor used.
Tutorials
Tutorials and how to articles with electronic schemes for interfacing and programming infrared sensors.
In this section of the article a series of tutorials that shows electronic schemes how to interface the IR sensors with different electronic boards, and up to programming in order to read the sensor signals.
- The IR Range Sensor – step by step tutorial that covered areas like how it works and how to use an infrared sensor to measure the distance between sensor and objects;
- Grove – Infrared Reflective Sensor – example how to interface and programming an infrared reflective sensor for color and distance detection that uses RPR220 reflective photosensor module;
- How to use sharp IR sensor with arduino – short guide how to interface Arduino Uno board with Sharp GP2D12 infrared sensor and reads the value of the sensor;
- How to use infrared receiver sensors for collision avoidance – example how to interface an IR sensor with an Arduino board for collision avoidance application;
- Tutorial: How to use the PIR (Passive Infrared) Sensor with Arduino – simple tutorial with scheme and programming lines that show how PIR sensor can be used with an Arduino board to detect changes in the infrared images;
- Simple IR Distance Sensor Tutorial – Arduino code to reading values from the Panasonic pna4602m IR sensor and IR led in order to detect the distance between sensor and objects;
- Using an IR Sensor – tutorial where is used the reading functionality directly from pin D2 instead the digitalRead() procedure, which is too slow for the signal received from IR sensor;
- Pyroelectric (“Passive”) InfraRed sensors – tutorial that show from how it works to interfacing and programming the small, inexpensive, and low-power PIR sensors;
- Making a Line Sensor using IR Receiver – step by step tutorial with schema and images in order to use an IR Rx/Tx pair sensors for line follower robot application;
- Obstacle Avoiding Robot using AVR ATmega32 – Part II – second part of the tutorial to build a line follower robot that uses IR sensors and based on AVR ATmega32;
- HomeMade IR Sensor Controlling Robot – example how IR sensors can be used to control a robot. In this project are used two RadioShack 38KHz IR Receivers to control autonomous a DIY robot;
- Adjustable Infrared Sensor Switch – a guide that shows how the DFRobot Adjustable Infrared Sensor Switch can be interfaced with DFRobot electronic board in order to measure or adjust the distance between sensor and objects;
- Make your own IR obstacle detection sensor – a DIY sensor could be a good solution for robotic applications and in this tutorial describe the steps that to build an infrared sensor from scratch using IR LED’s for range obstacle detector robot;
- How to make simple Infrared Sensor Modules – guide how to build a DIY infrared sensor module for detecting reflecting surface applications;
- Sensors – Sharp IR Range Finder – this article covers a series of information regarding IR sensors from how it works to advantages and application examples;
- Testing an IR Sensor – short guide how to build a simple circuit to test the functionality of infrared sensors;