Specifications

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Figure 5.1 shows the MATLAB 3D plot which depicts roughly the boundary an object
must enter to be detected by the sensor. The red line represents the perpendicular
sensing distance and the blue lines show the extremities of the reflected light.
Figure 5.1 Sensor spectrum
This is a practical spread of detectable range. If pointed towards the driving surface the
sensors will detect any object that comes within the driving direction of the robot.
After the large time and effort that went into the design, construction and testing
explained in chapter 4, it has become evident that the price of commercial sensors is
very affordable. If the sensors had been purchased as a whole unit it is presumable that
few troubles would have occurred from the vision aspect for the duration of the project.
This in turn would have allowed a much greater development of the practical side of the
robot. Dead reckoning guidance could have been implemented and a useful purpose
such as object retrieval could have been created. For sensors in similar applications it is
easy to see that it is worth spending extra money and having a small, compact sensor
that can be relied on relatively heavily.