Learning Robotics using Python - Second Edition

Ultrasonic sensors

Ultrasonic sensors, also called ping sensors and are mainly used to measure the distance from an object. The main application of ping sensors is to avoid obstacles. The ultrasonic sensor emits high-frequency sound waves and evaluates the echoes that it receives from the object. The sensor will calculate the delay between the sending and receiving of the echo and determine its distance to the object.

In our robot, collision-free navigation is an important part of the design specifications, otherwise there will be damage to the robot. You will see an image showing an ultrasonic sensor in the next section. This sensor can be installed on the sides of a robot to detect collisions at the sides and back of the robot. Kinect is ...