IR Sensor

The photo depicts the schematics for an infrared sensor which allows you to detect an object's distance from the robot. The big picture problem is attach this infrared sensor on both wings of the aerial robot. Attaching these sensors on the wing tips will help the robot navigate through the halls of any building.. This tutorial shows you how to construct and test one infrared sensor and takes approximately 3 hours to complete.


Motivation and Audience

Readers of this tutorial assumes the reader has the following background and interests:

The rest of the tutorial is presented as follows:

Parts List and Sources

US-based vendors to obtain material to complete this tutorial include:

To complete this tutorial, you'll need the following items:

TABLE 1: Parts needed to build Infrared Proximity Switch
PART DESCRIPTIONVENDORPART #PRICE (2002)QTY
270-ohm resistorJameco30605$0.46 per 100+ Unit1
10K resistorJameco29911$0.46 per 100+ Unit1
 light-emitting diodeRadio Shack276-143$1.791
Infrared sensitive phototransistorRadio Shack276-145$1.491
Prototyping Circuit BoardRadio Shack276-148$1.691

Construction

This section gives step-by-step instructions along with photos to the construction of IR Proximity Switch. Because this is a very simple circuit, only a schematic for the sensor is shown here: (For the PDF format click here.)

Data Collected

Click here for the data collected. This includes all the data collected on Sheet 1 and the graph generated on the sheet labeled Chart 1.

Final Words

This tutorial's objective was to help others built a infrared proximity switch. Complete construction details and photos are included in this tutorial for the sensor. Once the concepts were conveyed the reader could build an IR switch which could be connected to a robot and be used as the robot's eyes.

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