Thames & Kosmos DLX, Experiment Manual, Page: 98 / 132

SENSORS
A sensor
is something that takes measurements of the physical or chemical properties of
its environment. Some such properties might be
temperature,
humidity, pressure, sound,
brightness, or acceleration. This way, a robot can know how cold or loud it is, or e
ven
just whether it is already moving.
BARCODES
A barcode is a type of image consisting of lots of parallel lines and
spaces. The data in a barcode is read with optical readers such as
barcode scanners and then processed electronically to convert it
into numbers. The numbers represented by the barcode are usually
printed at the bottom of the barcode.
How robots orient themselves
to their surroundings
Things get really exciting with robots when they are able to move around in their
surroundings all by themselves. To do that, though, they have to orient themselves. They
have to know where they are and what’s going on around them, where their goal is, and
where and how to keep moving.
Below, we present a few important kinds of technology
for autonomous robots.
CAMERAS AND LASER SCANNERS
By using cameras, a robot can create an image of its
surroundings. Sometimes the robot has to know more
precisely how even or uneven the ground is, for example.
Here’s where the laser scanner comes in. During laser
scanning, a surface is covered with a grid of laser beams,
each of which take measurements of the surface. A
computer connected to the scanner creates a picture out of
those measurements. Then the robot applies special
sensors to recognize whether the ground surface is squishy,
granular, or soft.
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