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Arduino and Ultrasonic range finder with wireless capability

Former Member

Hi Guys,

 

I am new to this website and I am in need of some help.

 

I am a final year student studying a Computer Engineering Course. For my final year i have create a project, i have one idea that involves using the a arduino board(not sure what one yet) and some ultrasonic range finders to detect the whereabouts of the cyclist on the road in relation to a car. The sensors would be place on the back  and side of the car and i will try and work out the distance or if there is a bike is in the proximity of the car

 

My first question is, what is the best sensor to us?

As it is an academic project i do have a small budget so the cheap and most effective sensor would be the best for me.

Secondly what Arduino board would you recommend for this type of project? eventually i would like to it have some wireless capability. Ideally i would use a device that can be wired or wireless.

 

Thanks

  • Hi James

     

    Great Project idea! However, I feel that one helps too much you will lose out on some very valuable research and design experience.

     

    I will give you some of my intial thoughts...

     

    Ultrasonic range finders are great for obstacle detection, and there are many cheap and useful devices like the SRF02,08,05,04 etc.,

     

    However,you may find it quite difficult to distinguish between bikes, and other roadside objects, such as lights, other cars, people, and other non bike objects...

     

    In fact, I personally would not consider ultrasonic detectors, for such a critical task as identifying a bike, amongst other objects.

     

    I guess I might look at using cameras, and fast edge detection algorithms..It would certainly be a challenge!

     

    It will be difficult to recommend an Arduino of any type, or a wireless system, until one knows exactly what sort of detection system you will use.

     

    My best advice would be to leave this for a more advanced project when you do not have the time and budget constraints that you face at the moment!

     

    It would be better for your results too have a project that is less 'meaty'...then you will be more able to demonstrate a deeper understanding through good initial research and planning, and be in with a chance of some excellent results.

     

    Whatever you decide, there are plenty of excellent engineers here who can help you when you get stuck with specific problems along the way.. image

  • in reply to robotonics

    Hi David

     

    Thanks for the reply, you have highlight one to the main problems that i found whilst taking on this project, how to distinguish between between the cars and the cyclist. There have been a number of ideas mentioned by a tutor of mine to do with image recognition but i don't have the knowledge of that to take that on.

     

    The other alternative that i thought of was to add a receiver on to a bike, then you would look for the receiver? Otherwise its back to the drawing board.

  • in reply to Former Member

    Hi James

     

    Perhaps you could have a beacon transmitter on the bike, and a receiver in the car, the bike transmitter could transmit a unique id that the receiver recognises, signal strength could be used to calculate rough distance...

     

    This would certainly be more achievable, and the test results would be interesting...

     

    Make a plan of what you NEED the system to do and what you would LIKE the system to do if you had extra spends...

     

    That way we can help with suggestions based on your requirements for the system...sound like a plan?

  • in reply to robotonics

    I will have to run that idea past my tutor tomorrow and we will see what he has to say. For me i think that would probably give me enough scope for an interesting project. I will keep you posted on the decision.

     

    Thanks again for you help

  • in reply to Former Member

    Excellent...and when you are ready, you will find that you will get great support here at Element14...Do not hesitate to ask questions, nothing worse than getting stuck on something for days....image