I was planning on creating a project and had a few questions about this.
My thought process was to create an RC car that could be turned on and drives by itself with a sensor in front which will help detect objects and have programming to help avoid obstacles.
My first question: are there any RC kits out there that are small yet fast that allow me to create this? I want it to be as neat and simple as possible.
My second question: I was thinking of using a Ultrasonic Sensor. Is there a reference guide to how the programming of this works and what exactly can it detect? I want to know if this sensor can only detect if there is an object directly ahead of it or if it could detect certain objects that are maybe at a 60 degree angle and return a value indicating this.
Have You Googled onthe capability of Ultrasonics? Your qeuestions is higly right. Detect a wall, yes, detect a leg of a chair…..?
A RC car is by definition radio controlled. However, some people start with an RC car, take the radio out and add sensors and a microprocessor to control the motors. Google will show you examples.
For an autonomous vehicle, you need a platform with motors, wheels (wheel encoders are nice), sensors, batteries and a microcontroller. There are pre-built ones from Pololu, or kits from various manufacturers.
One popular, inexpensive and flexible starting point is this platform kit: DFRobot 4WD Arduino-Compatible Platform w/Encoders - RobotShop
Railroader:
Have You Googled onthe capability of Ultrasonics? Your qeuestions is higly right. Detect a wall, yes, detect a leg of a chair…..?
I meant like, there's 2 cups with a empty space in the middle. Will the sensor only say there is an object ahead of the car or can it provide more specific information, like "there is an object 30 degrees away from the sensor."
Sensors usually don't "say things".
A distance sensor reports the range to the closest object in its cone of vision, which is very narrow for this laser sensor and rather wide for this sonar sensor.