Many animals such as dogs and bats can hear and navigate by sending out beams of ultrasound and listening for the echoes. The same principle is used in robotics for a long time, but with a few improvements and adjustments. The ability to see obstacles in front of the ultrasonic sensor ensures that your robot doesn’t kill itself.

The URM04 v2.0 is a new ultrasonic sensor that makes a functional difference. There is an advantage to work together in a network. The URM04 is based on the RS485 interface that allows a number of maximum 32 sensors connected together in a network.

The tiny sensor is based on the URM37 ultrasonic sensor and allows you to detect or measure the distance to an object with a resolution of 1cm and in a detecting range between 4 and 500cm.

The URM04 is a good component for a robot that requires a large number of ultrasonic sensors. Being compatible with the RS-485 interface, it cannot work directly with an Arduino board. The sensor can be interfaced to the Arduino microcontroller using an IO Expansion shield. If you don’t want to use the IO expansion shield, you still may use a workaround to interface the sensor. You can use the RS485 chip – MAX485 or its analogue to have a fully functional ultrasonic sensor.