Vehicle's obstacle avoidance sensor

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Hi all,

I'm new in robotics and I would like to make a vehicle in order to play with my 3 years-old son. I have a PIC 16F917 microcontroller and a Half H bridge L293DNE. What I've tried so far in order to make the vehicle move is s C code guided by the following link: http://www.google.gr/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCQQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.societyofrobots.com%2Fmember_tutorials%2Ffiles%2FLukas%2520PIC%2520Tutorial.doc&ei=8tWCT4GeNZD6sgaQmYzRBA&usg=AFQjCNFw6ZoQSyoKwRj3uPaLmchgBzGY4Q&sig2=tLQ7VN9IJen-TXCznu4jLA. So I was able to make the robot move forward, backward and turn left and right. What I want to do now is to find suitable sensors for obstacle avoidance. Since I have no previous experience could someone recommend the appropriate  compatible with the microcontroller sensors? If so, I would like to know in which pins of microcontroller I should connect the sensors and moreover the suitable programming order in C , for the sensors to interact with the microcontroller.

 

Thank you all in advance!!

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With all the pins you have available,

you are free to pick any sensors you see commonly used; Sharp IR, ultrasonic, simple IR emitter/detector pairs, bump switches, motor stall sensors, etc. I would love to be able to help with the programming, but, I have not caught on to how to program PICs in C. I also don’t know where to find libraries for some of the common sensors, especially the ultrasonics. The other sensors I mentioned above are pretty straight forward, just read an input.

3

Fun with Bump-into

Your 3-year old son might find it funny, if the robot kindly bumps into him to then turn and drive away. So you’ll need some bump sensors or maybe even better a acceleration sensor.

Both sensors are going to sense a bump. The acceleration sensor can be positioned inside the robot what makes it less exposed and therefore more robust.

Here is a robot that uses the acceleration sensor. Have a look at the video.