Reflectance Sensor

Experimental Study Summery

This study was performed by Team A to gain an understanding of the reflectance sensor (pictured below), The reflectance sensor is a device attached to the AEV’s wheel that performs a vital role in the Mission Concept Review (MCR). The sensors have the job of recording the AEV’s movement. It does this by reading and reacting to light protruding from the wheel’s surface, counting it as a “mark”. A mark is a unit of measurement equivalent to 0.4875 inches. This is crucial for the MCR because it gives a somewhat reliable way to know the AEV’s position on the track. This then helps the team’s code to be able to stop the AEV at a certain distance, or any other precise movement techniques that may be required.

The study also focused on learning how to do a reflectance sensor test, which makes sure that the refelctance sensors are working properly and reading the correct amount of marks. The group learned this ability by calling the reflectance sensor test function in the Arduino code (see the Arduino Code Glossary for specific details), and seeing whether the AEV counted the correct amount of marks given the scenario code depicted below.

Reflectance Sensors Attached to the AEV Base Model

Code

Arduino Code Glossary