I have to do this college project in the next few months but I'm a complete beginner to arduino. The project involves two radars using ultrasonic sensors (or better say sonars) which work together. First radar should be surveillance radar which scans for the moving objects in the area and the second radar should be targeting radar which should lock on to a moving target detected by the first radar. It means that these two radars should constantly communicate between themselves. The final part of the project is to make a radar screen on a computer for the first radar (in other words it should show the rotating axis of radar and the detected objects on the screen).
My questions are following:
What kind of arduino boards do I need? Is the arduino uno enough for this?
What kind of software should I install? I've found out that i need these two programs: Arduino IDE & Processing IDE. Is this enough? Also, what kind of software do I need for making a communication between the two arduino boards? Would it be possible to achieve it using these two software programs or I need something additional?
I apologize if I missed the correct forum section (I'm new here). Thank you in advance
Any Arduino can be used to operator a sonar rangefinder, and also a servo to scan the rangefinder if desired. I prefer the $2 Pro Mini from eBay.
For program development, all you need is the Arduino IDE on a PC, Mac or Linux. There are plenty of examples on the web for every aspect of your project.
Note: always use a separate power supply for servos or motors, and connect the grounds. It is actually possible to destroy an Arduino by using it to power a motor or servo and just the attempt will probably cause the Arduino to malfunction.
First radar should be surveillance radar which scans for the moving objects in the area and the second radar should be targeting radar which should lock on to a moving target detected by the first radar
You should know that cheap hobby ultrasound sonar sensors cannot operate simultaneously, unlike real radars. Because the sonars all operate on the same frequency it isn't possible to distinguish echoes from multiple devices.
Also they have a cone of "visibility" of approx. 30 degrees (15 degrees either side) and the nearest object within that cone is what provides the measured distance. So it's anything but accurate.