Worksheet: Obstacle Detection

Introduction to Mobile Robotics > Obstacle Detection

This worksheet is provided for reference only. Be sure that you follow the steps in the online directions, and answer the questions at the appropriate times. Fill out all your answers on a separate sheet of paper.

Construct: Touch Sensor

1. What did the robot do? The robot stopped when it reached the obstacle. 2. What caused the robot to stop? It stopped because the button on the touch sensor was pressed in. 3. Do you think its a good idea for the robot to run into obstacles and stop? No because by the time the robot hits the obstacle damage could be done. Also it might knock the obstacle over when it runs into it. 4. What are the benefits and drawbacks of this behaviour? Some benefits are it can easily run round obstacles and you dont have to continue programming it to do what you want. Some drawbacks are that if the obstacle is to the side of the robot the robot cant detect it and it can run out of battery because the robot will keep on going forward until it senses something.

5. What did the robot do? The robot stopped within 10cm of the obstacle. 6. What caused the robot to stop? The robot stopped because the ultrasonic sensor detected the obstacle and judged the distance which it was from the obstacle.

7. How far away from the obstacle did the robot stop?

It stopped 10cm away from the obstacle. 8. What are the benefits and drawbacks of this behaviour? Some benefits are that we can program the robot to stop before it hits the obstacle which means if the object can be easily knocked over the robot doesnt knock it over. A drawback is that the robot cant easily predict the exact distance it is away from the obstacle. 9. How reliable is this sensor as opposed to the touch sensor? This sensor is more reliable because it sensors the obstacle before it hits it and can predict how far away it is compared to the touch sensor which doesnt know the object is there until it runs into it.

Contemplate

10. Think about the Construct Phase that you just completed and compare using the touch and ultrasonic sensors. i. What is the main difference between the two programs? The main difference between the two programs is that instead of using the touch sensor block in our program which tells the robot to stop when it touches something we used the ultra-sonic block which uses the ultra-sonic sensor on the robot. What is the main difference in the robots behaviour when you use each of the different sensors? The main difference between the robots behaviour when it is using the ultra -sonic sensor to detect an object is that it stops before the object, whilst when it is using the touch sensor it stops when it hits the object. ii. 11. The ultrasonic sensor allows you to stop before you reach an object, rather than after youve run into it. What are the benefits and drawbacks of this behaviour? The benefits are that the robot doesnt knock the object over and it can more easily manoeuvre round the object if it detects it sooner. Some drawbacks are that if the object is on the other side of the robot to where the sensor is the sensor wont be able to detect it and the object will run into the object and keep going forward.

12. The touch sensor only has two settings, pressed and not pressed. The ultrasonic sensor, on the other hand, can sense any distance between 0 and 200 centimetres. Why do you need to set a threshold level for the ultrasonic sensor, but not for the touch sensor? You need to set a threshold level for the ultrasonic sensor but not the touch sensor because for the ultrasonic because it stops before an object you need to specify the distance for it to stop before the object. The touch sensor doesnt need a threshold because it stops when the object is actually touched. ii. What happens to the robots behaviour as you change that threshold level for the ultrasonic sensor? If you change the threshold for the ultrasonic sensor the robot will stop more or less distance from objects if you put the threshold higher or lower. i.

Continue: Detecting Everyday Objects

Observations:

13. What does the sensor show when it has difficulty detecting anything? When the sensor had difficulty detecting anything it shows a series of question marks. 14. Does the shape or curvature of an object make a difference? No, the shape or curvature of an object doesnt make a difference as long as he object is right in front of the sensor and the object isnt too far away. 15. Does the sensor detect soft or hard objects better? Why do you think this is? The sensor detects hard objects better than soft objects because it is easier for the ultra-sonic sensor to find hard objects than soft. I think it is like this because ultra-sonic works by produing a wave and measuring the distance by the wave bouncing back. Soft objects make it hard for this wave to bounce back. 16. What is the smallest object detected? The sensor will detect any size object as long as it is right in front in front of it. 17. Does the sensor detect thin objects well? No, the sensor doesnt detect thin objects well because there is not much surface area on thin objects for the wave to bounce back and the sensor finds it very hard to read.

18. Turn the sensor 90 degrees on its side so it is positioned upright. Does it detect thin objects better now? Yes, when we turned the sensor 90 degrees on its side it does detect think objects better. We think this is because it is a different angle that the senor can detect beter.