Infrared Sensor

Part 1

The City College of New York

Infra Red (IR) Sensors

IR is preferable to visible light in robotics (and other) applications. This is because it suffers a bit less from ambient interference,
because it can be easily modulated, because it is not visible.

The City College of New York

Infra Red (IR) Sensors

Infra red sensors are a type of light sensors They function in the infra red part of the frequency spectrum. IR sensors are active sensors They consist of:
an emitter a receiver.

IR sensors are used in the same ways as the visible light sensors are:
as reflectance sensors. as break-beams,
The City College of New York

Reflective Optosensors
Depending of the arrangement of those two relative to each other, we can get two types of sensors:
reflectance sensors
the emitter and the detector are next to each other, separated by a barrier; objects are detected when the light is reflected off them and back into the detector

break break-beam sensors

the emitter and the detector face each other; objects are detected if they interrupt the beam of light between the emitter and the detector

The City College of New York

IR Reflective Optosensors
Transmitter LED: only infrared light by filtering out visible light Light detector (receiver) (photodiode or phototransistor)

Light from emitter LED bounces off of an external object and is reflected into the detector

Quantity of light is reported by the sensor Depending on the reflectivity of the surface, more or less of the transmitted light is reflected into the detector This is an analog sensor - connects board analog Theto City College of ports New York

Reflective Optosensors
The emitter is usually made out of a light-emitting diode (an LED). The detector is usually a photodiode/phototransistor. Note that these are not the same technology as resistive photocells. Resistive photocells are nice and simple, but their resistive properties make them slow. Photodiodes and photo-transistors are much faster and therefore the preferred type of technology.
The City College of New York

Light Reflectivity.
What can you do with this simple idea of light reflectivity? Quite a lot of useful things:
object presence detection object distance detection surface feature detection (finding/following markers/tape) wall/boundary tracking rotational shaft encoding (using encoder wheels w/ ridges or black & white color) bar code decoding
The City College of New York

Light Reflectivity.
Light reflectivity depends on the color (and other properties) of a surface. A light surface will reflect light better than a dark one, and a black surface may not reflect it at all, thus appearing invisible to a light sensor. Darker objects harder (less reliable) to detect . In the case of object distance, lighter objects that are farther away will seem closer than darker objects that are not as far away.

The City College of New York

Interfacing Reflective Optosensors

Two components of the sensor, the emitter and detector, have logically separate circuits, though they are wired to the same connector plug Detector Q1, shown as a phototransistor, is wired between ground and the sensor signal linejust like a photocell The emitter LED (LED1), is wired to the Handy Boards +5v power supply through R1, the current-limiting resistor R1s value can vary 220-470W, depending on how much brightness is desired from the emitter LED
Reflectance Sensor Interface Diagram The City College of New York

Quality Technologies QRD1114 IR Optosensor

LED emitter and detector phototransistor or photodiode are matched. This means that peak sensitivity of the detector is at same wavelength of emissions of the emitter You should use infrared detector card to test IR light output
Emitter LED connects through 330KW resistor to +5v supply (constantly on)

Wiring Detector transistor pulled high with HB internal 47K resistor May have trouble figuring out which element is transistor and which is detector Length of leads: longer +, shorter Detector connects to sensor signal line

The City College of New York

What are the applications of Reflective Optosensors?

1. Object detection.
Reflectance sensors may be used to measure the presence of an object in the sensors field of view. In addition to simply detecting the presence of the object, the data from a reflectance sensor may be used to indicate the objects distance from the sensor. Disadvantage: These reading are dependent on the reflectivity of the object, among other thingsa highly reflective object that is farther away may yield a signal as strong as a less reflective object that is closer. 2. Surface feature detection. Reflective optosensors are great for detecting features painted, taped, or otherwise marked onto the floor. Line-following using a reflective sensor is a typical robot activity. The City College of New York

What are the applications of Reflective Optosensors?

3. Wall tracking. Related the object detection category, this application treats the wall as a continuous obstacle and uses the reflective sensor to indicate distance from the wall. 4. Rotational shaft encoding. Using a pie-shaped encoder wheel, the reflectance sensor can measure the rotation of a shaft (angular position and velocity). 5. Barcode decoding. Reflectance sensors can be used to decode information from barcode markers placed in the robots environment.

The City College of New York

Line Detecting and Following

The City College of New York

Complete Line Following Circuit

The City College of New York