Ultrasonic Rangefinders

Abstract

You are now going to take a look at a different kind of sensor, one that is used frequently in robotics and industrial applications. The ultrasonic rangefinder is designed to detect the distance to an object by bouncing an ultrasonic sound pulse off it and listening for the time it takes for the pulse to return. You are going to use a popular type of ultrasonic rangefinder, from the Maxbotix LV-MaxSonar range of sensors, but the concepts learned in this chapter can be applied to any other make of ultrasonic range finder. You’ll learn the basics of connecting the sensor to the Arduino first, then move on to putting the sensor to use.