LIDAR alternative idea

[viggy96]

I just thought of this a few days ago, so bear with me.

I was thinking of having the students build a SONAR system of sorts for autonomous navigation. Using a servo spinning around, with two ultrasonic sensors, (one at a greater angle, for short range, and another at a more shallow angle for long range.), create a "map" of directions that are clear for the robot to drive. (If we have time) I was also thinking of linking this to vision, (w/ OpenCV), to identify the colour of the flat areas (i.e floor) to make better decisions about where to drive.

Do you guys this would be effective/useful?