Basic perception

This chapter considers the basic types of sensors that are used in the mobile robots. It also considers the principle of operation of these basic types of sensors. Bumper is one of the most basic and commonly used sensors. The main purpose of the bumper is to signalize that the movement zone’s boundary is reached and no further movement in this direction is possible. The odometry sensor measures the length of the robot’s trajectory that is necessary, especially for mobile robots. A distance sensor, also known as a range finder, enables a robot to detect obstacles in its path. Unlike the bumper switches that alert engineers when they have been hit, the range finder sensor can alert them to an obstacle in the path of the robot prior to hitting it. The most useful in robotics are laser and ultrasonic rangefinders. The main types of laser rangefinders are time-of-flight, phase-shift, triangulation, and interference.