Programming Worksheet: Obstacle Detection

Kelly Arndt, Sarah Chartier, and Hayley Petit Team Ratchet

1. The robot stopped after touching the wall. 2. The robot stopped because when touching the wall the device placed in front of the touch sensor pressed the button to activate the sensor to stop the robot. 3. I think depending on the situation having the robot run into the obstacles and stop could be a good or a bad thing. If you needed the object to be touched then it could be a good thing if not, it could harm your robot or the obstacle. 4. The benefits of this feature would be that it could be used as a emergency stop to prevent any damage, the downfalls of this feature however would be that the robot could be damaged because of how it has to run into things to detect them. 5. This time the robot stopped before touching the wall. 6. The robot was able to stop because the ultrasonic sensor detected the wall ahead of it allowing it to stop before it collided. 7. The robot stopped 10 centimeters in front of the wall because it was programmed to, it could stop anywhere between 0-100 centimeters though. 8. The benefits of this sensor would be that you dont have to hit your obstacles in order to know to stop, and you can change the distance from which the robot stops in relation to the obstacle. The drawbacks of this would be that the sensor can be faulty and will still run into the obstacles at times. 9. The touch sensor would most likely be the more reliable of the two sensors. This is because the touch sensor is a two step process of knowing the button was pressed whereas the ultrasonic sensor can have faulty reliability because it doesnt always detect the object in front of it. 10. I) When comparing the touch and ultrasonic sensor there is quite a difference. The touch sensor operated by stopping as soon as the sensors button was pressed in. The ultrasonic sensor worked by viewing an object ten centimeters away and would stop before touching it. II) The robots in the robots behavior when using the touch sensor was that it wouldnt stop until it touched something which is a bit less efficient. The ultrasonic sensor was more efficient in stopping because it could view its surroundings and stop before running into the object. 11. The benefits of the ultrasonic sensor stopping before the robot touches an object would be that this can allow the object to remain unmoved and allows the robot to avoid running into the

object. The drawbacks of this device would be if you were in fact trying to touch or move the object you wouldnt be capable of doing so. 12. I) The reason behind being able to set a threshold level for the ultrasonic sensor and not the touch sensor would be the fact that the touch sensor only needs two settings. The touch sensor makes the robot stop when the button on the sensor is pressed so if you want to just touch an object then you would use the touch sensor. The ultrasonic sensor needs a setting because you could want the distance of the robot from the object to vary so it can maneuver around it. II) As you change the threshold for the ultrasonic sensor the robot will vary in stopping distance from the object. If you were to raise the number you will stop farther from the object, if set lower you will still closer to the object. 13. I) Three reasons you would want to use a touch sensor on a real world robot would be to stop a robot if it were to hit something in its path, allow it to detect something depending on where it is placed in the robot allowing a person to decided where something should detect it, or because it could potentially save the robot being destroyed if it were to try and continue on forward. II) Two robots that could use a touch sensor in this way is anything that could need an emergency stop type button for electrical wiring of a house, or bumper cars when they come in contact so they dont completely collide. III) One situation where a touch sensor wouldnt be acceptably used as an obstacle detector would be if there were fragile objects around. The robot could break the obstacles if they were to be bumped by the touch sensor. 14. I) Three reasons you would want to use an ultrasonic sensor on real world robots would be the fact that it doesnt actually touch its obstacles so they cant break, the fact that you can alter the distance at which the robot stops so obstacles can be easily passed, and you can attach the sensor anywhere on the robot so incase it is tall it can avoid higher obstacles or lower obstacles. II) The ultrasonic sensor doesnt provide reliable detection for every type of obstacles. The sensor doesnt always detect the obstacles and can still hit the object so its faulty in that sense. III) One situation in which the ultrasonic sensor could be acceptably used as an obstacle detector would be if the obstacles could harm the robot. The robot wouldnt have to touch an object so it doesnt get harmed like an automatic vacuum. IV) One situation in which the ultrasonic sensor wouldnt acceptably detect an obstacle is if the obstacle needs to be touched to have a sort of chain reaction that could be needed. Also, because the accuracy can be off sometimes it wouldnt be good if that was an absolute need. 15. Other sensors that could be used would be light sensors to warn you when the robot has detected a different color shade, for example when its in the rink it will detect when its being pushed out because it will recognize that its going from the color black to the color white.

Another that could be used is the sound sensor. This sensor allows the robot to react to a noise, or the loudness of it and can be measured.