 Lego Mindstorms Color Sensor A Sensor is a device that measures a physical quality and transfers it into a form of information that can be read by another instrument or controlling device. Sensors that robots use transfer information about the world around them into electronic signals. These electronic signals are fed into the CPU or Microcontroller of a robotic system.
The information that sensors return to th...
Read More -> |  Accelerometer An Accelerometer is used to determine the magnitude and orientation of acceleration. One of its main uses is to figure out a device’s direction within the gravitational field. Gravity is a form of acceleration that is constantly pulling us and our robots to earth. Robots can use accelerometers to determine how quickly they can accelerate a fragile object, or provide feedback to determine if they have lost traction.
Accelerometers are used in devic...
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 Samsung's Cliff Sensor A Cliff Sensor is important to have on certain robotic systems to avoid excessive drops that otherwise might damage the robot. Roomba models come with a cliff sensor to help them avoid driving over stairwells or ledges.
A cliff sensor can be mechanical, optical, or even ultrasonic - however they all achomplish the same purpose. A mechanical cliff sensor is simply a contact that runs along the ground that when a large drop...
Read More -> |  Hall Effect Sensors (1mm magnet on the right) Hall sensor is based upon the “hall effect”, which is a way to detect the presence and intensity of a magnetic field. These sensors can be used to determine position, speed, - or really any form of magnetic field. A typical use would be in magnetic encoders which give robots positional feedback.
A reed switch is similar to a hall sensor in that it is used to detect the presence of a magnetic field, however a reed switch does not return the inte...
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 AcuAMP Current flow sensor Current Flow Sensor used to detect internal problems, or regulate the electronic mechanisms inside a robot and/or control system. Monitoring current flow is essential in battery charging and discharging circuits to make sure everything is operating at a safe level. Current monitoring can also be used to determine the efficiency of your drive-train system, detect wheel slippage, and even rough force estimations. What’s nice about current flow sensing i...
Read More -> |  Force Sensing Resistors A Force Sensor resistor (FSR) is a special material that changes resistance with the application of force. Force sensing resistors are typically very thin in profile – which offers advantages when force-sensing abilities are needed in tight spaces. A FSR is usualy a mixture of suspended conductive particles, than when compressed / forced together, increase the conductivity of the material – and hence can sense force.
Pressure and force transducers...
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 Gyro Sensor A Gyro is used to provide orientation information to a robot that might be moving uncontrollably or in an otherwise unknown state. This situation could apply to an airborne or underwater robot where wind or water current (or other forces) might dictate how the robot must respond. Robotic quadcopters have gyROS to help them figure out where "up" is. This is important since the microprocessor on-board must do some calculations to stabilize...
Read More -> |  Infrared Sensor The Infrared spectrum includes light waves that are too low in frequency for our eyes to detect. The category of infrared light is most popularly associated with thermal and heat signatures, however most of the everyday infrared spectrum devices we commonly use operate in the near Infrared spectrum (NIR).
Infrared sensors that detect thermal emissions are based around the mid and far infrared spectrum and are what we see in the thermal imaging and FLIR...
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 Hokuyo's popular laser range finder Laser Rangefinder operate on a similar concept to that used with Ultrasonic Sensor / sonar, and radar. Essentially what is happening is that energy is projected out (in this case light from a laser beam) and the sensor waits for the beam to bounce back from the objects it hits. Using a laser is very beneficial because the light beam can be directed in a very concentrated manner (unlike an ultrasonic sensor) and...
Read More -> |  Microphone sensor A Microphone converts sound waves into analog voltage signals. As the sound waves reach the microphone, they move a small diaphragm back and forth within the device. Attached to this diaphragm is usually a piezoelectric material that generates a voltage as the diaphragm moves back and forth. This "electronic signature" of the diaphragm motion can be captured, amplified, and then replayed back through speakers to produce sound again.
Similarly, the ...
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A Resolution refers to the amount of information that can be encoded in a piece of information. Often this is used to describe the accuracy of A Sensor or the size of instruction a robot can handle. A resolution of 8 bits means that the robot can deal with 8-bit numbers (256 unique posibilities). If your robot has an 8-bit analog to digital converter (ADC) then you know that it can only differentiate between 256 voltage poi...
Read More -> |  RooTooth device A RooTooth is a solution developed for controlling the Roomba family robots, wirelessly. The RooTooth communicates with any Bluetooth enabled device, and with the Roomba using the Serial Command Interface (SCI). Using the Rootooth one can control the Roomba robot remotely, all SCI commands like waking up (changing mode), starting to clean, and driving can are supported. Control is enabled from any s...
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 Rotary Encoder Explained A Rotary Encoder is used to provide angular position feedback. They come in "digital" or analog form, and the types of information they offer can be packaged in various ways.
One of the more popular types of encoders is called an optical rotary quadrature encoder. This type of encoder uses two LED emitter and receiver pairs that are slightly staggered in their orientation. Between both pairs of emitters and receivers, is placed a slotted disk that...
Read More -> |  Speaker A Speaker works in reverse to a microphone. As a Microphone detects pressure waves in the air (we call sound); a speaker generates pressure waves that your ears can hear. Most speakers on robots allow them to generate different noises to indicate or provide some additional level of feedback.
Inside a speaker exists a diaphragm that has a magnet attached to it. Surrounding this magnet is a larger coil of wire. As cu...
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 DFRobot's Tilt Sensor A Tilt Sensor or an Inclinometer, measures the angle of tilt of a robot. The output can either be an analog value representing the angle of tilt, or a digital on/off output. An analog tilt sensor would utilize and accelerometer, whereas a digital tilt "switch" would just measure if the angle of tilt was less than or greater than a certain amount.
A digital tilt sensor might consist of a pendulum that when rotated to a certain degree, triggers an outp...
Read More -> |  Ultrasonic Sensor An Ultrasonic Sensor allows the robot the ability to understand & visualize the world around it. Ultrasonic sensors rely on a the same principal that bats use to map their environment - which is called echolocation. Echolocation is simply the process of emitting a sound and then waiting for the reflected noise to bounce back. A great example of this is when you might yell in a parking garage on canyon. Since sound travels at a set speed - it takes time ...
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