I'm currently testing the Sharp GP2Y0A700K0F for use as a possible laser scanner replacement. The sensor is an infrared ranging module costing about £20 and has a range of up to 5.5 metres, which would be quite acceptable for most indoor navigation tasks. There seems to be no information available, even within the Engrish specification document, about the beam characteristics but by waving my hand in front of the sensor and watching the returned voltage change I can see that the beam looks reasonably narrow.
I'm using the Rodney robot as a pan and tilt mechanism for this sensor. By panning from side to side it may be possible to build up a two dimensional range profile very similar to what you might expect to acquire from a scanning laser rangefinder. If it works then this might be a good indoor navigation assistant, capable of being produced at low cost and lacking the safety issues associated with using lasers. The narrow beam and practically instantaneous ranging response provides a better solution than the sonar sensors which are traditionally used in robotics for similar purposes.
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How'd this work out? Any results?
Some initial results using four of these IR sensors mounted on a pan servo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTptAk5RaNQ
I'm now trying pan and tilt to see if I can build up a 3D scan in a similar way to a laser system, although obviously more slowly.
Also I'm trying combinations of short and long range IR sensors to fill in the < 1 metre blind spot, so that I can get ranges between 10cm and 5 metres.
There will be more results after I've finished doing some rewiring on the GROK2 robot.
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