Datasheet

Chapter 6 • Light-Sensitive Navigation with Phototransistors
176 • Robotics with the BOE Shield-Bot
Chapter 6. Light-Sensitive
Navigation with Phototransistors
Light sensors have many applications in robotics and industrial control: finding the edge of a
roll of fabric in a textile mill, determining when to activate streetlights at different times of
the year, when to take a picture, or when to deliver water to a crop of plants.
The light sensors in your Robotics Shield Kit respond to visible light, and also to an invisible
type of light called infrared. These sensors can be used in different circuits that the Arduino
can monitor to detect variations in light level. With this information, your sketch can be
expanded to make the BOE Shield-Bot navigate by light, such as driving toward a flashlight
beam or an open doorway letting light into a dark room.
Light-sensitive phototransistors
let the BOE Shield-Bot
navigate by driving towards a
bright light source.