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Unread 01-05-2006, 22:44
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Sparks333 Sparks333 is offline
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AKA: Dane B.
FRC #1425 (Wilsonville Robotics)
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Re: Maxbotix Sonar Sensor

Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Rotolo
IR sensors: The limiting factor is how much IR light you can throw, and that's generally not much. Ultrasonic is far better for mid-range (to, say, 30-40 feet max). Further than that and you are better off with Radio Frequency (e.g., RADAR). The issue is one of propagation - how far can the (transmitted thing) go?
The other thing about IR is that it bounces really well, plus it penetrates things you'd think would be opaque. In terms of rangefinding, as long as you are looking at something rather large (say, a wall) and had a good outlier-removing algorithim, then, sure. Otherwise, I'd say don't do it.

Aside from that, if we're talking about non-FIRST activities, I've heard that an ultrasonic rangefinding ring can be notoriously difficult to read (on account of so many transmissions coming and going at the same time), so, if you want to delve into some crazy algorithims in OOP, some programmers swear by artificial neural networks. Apparently, they are very adept at going through messy data and pulling reasonable answers from them.

Sparks



Sparks
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