Modern high-tech robots of various types have been widely used in numerous fields, occupying a pivotal position. As science continues to advance, the performance levels of robot manufacturing processes are also constantly improving. In the future, with the accelerated arrival of the era of the Internet of Things and intelligent sensing, robots will inevitably enter a new era of information and intelligence. To achieve this upgrade and development, among the technologies that have the greatest impact on robot development, in addition to artificial intelligence, big data, and positioning and navigation, sensor technology also plays a crucial role.
A sensor is a detection device that can sense the information being measured and convert the received information into electrical signals or other required forms of information output according to certain rules to meet the requirements of information transmission, storage, display, recording, and control. For robots, sensors are like the medium through which they understand the world, endowing them with the ability to perceive their external environment. Sensory organs, like the five senses of humans—sight, force, touch, smell, and taste—give objects a human-like sense of feeling, gradually bringing them to life. Just as eyes, nose, and ears function for the human body, sensors in hardware play the role of receiving information from the outside world. Today, the editor of ICbuy.com will briefly discuss the role of sensors in the future development of robots.
A robot's five sensory abilities—sight, force, touch, smell, and taste—all require sensor transmission. Therefore, sensors can be considered analogous to human sensory organs for robots. They detect the robot's external working environment and the state of objects, sensing and understanding information such as the position, speed, temperature, load, and voltage of each joint, and then feeding this information back to the controller to form a closed-loop control system. This effectively ensures and improves the robot's operation and sensitivity. Internally, sensors detect the robot's own working status. Through comprehensive information interaction combining internal and external systems, sensors truly transform the "machine" into a "human."
However, due to the industry's late start and intense competition, my country's sensor development still faces four major challenges.
First, key technologies have not yet been mastered. Sensor design technology encompasses knowledge from multiple disciplines, theories, materials, and processes, making breakthroughs extremely difficult. Currently, given the shortage of talent, high R&D costs, and fierce competition among enterprises, my country has not yet made breakthroughs in some common key technologies for sensors.
Second, insufficient industrialization capacity. Due to the backwardness of Chinese enterprises' technological strength and the lack of industry development standards, domestic sensor products are not well-matched or serialized, and there are frequent instances of duplicate production and vicious competition. This results in poor product reliability, a serious bias towards low-end products, and a disproportionate level of industrialization compared to the variety and series of products, leaving China with a long-term reliance on imports.
Third: Lack of resource concentration. Currently, there are more than 1,600 sensor companies in my country, but most of them are small and micro enterprises with weak profitability and a lack of leading enterprises with technological guidance. This results in a fragmented state in terms of capital, technology, enterprise layout, industrial structure, and market, and resources cannot be effectively concentrated, which hinders the industry's development from reaching maturity.
Fourth, there is a shortage of high-end talent. Because the sensor industry is still in its early stages of development, its funding, technology, and industrial foundation are relatively weak. Furthermore, it involves many disciplines, requires a broad knowledge base, and is constantly evolving with new technologies, making it difficult to attract high-end talent. In addition, the imperfect and unreasonable talent training mechanism in my country also contributes to the industry's talent shortage.
Driven by policy and the market, my country's sensor industry ecosystem is becoming increasingly complete, with leading enterprises participating in design and manufacturing, and some research institutions establishing relevant service platforms to promote industrial innovation. Robotics development still has a major trend and clear path. In the future, as long as my country solves the challenges in four areas—technology, talent, etc.—it can drive robot sensors towards maturity. ICbuy.com, as a sensor service provider, offers two sensors for robot obstacle avoidance and ranging. For specific technical solutions, please refer to the ICbuy.com article "Applications of Ultrasonic Obstacle Avoidance Sensors and Ultrasonic Ranging Sensors in Robots".
Sensors for obstacle avoidance
Obstacle avoidance is arguably the most basic function of all robots; otherwise, it would be a problem if the robot bumped into flowers and plants while moving around. Robots don't necessarily need to perceive whether there are obstacles in front of them through vision; they can also perceive them through touch or, like bats, through sound waves.
The MaxBotix MB1043 ultrasonic obstacle avoidance sensor is a high-resolution (1mm), high-precision, low-power ultrasonic sensor. Its design not only addresses interference and noise, providing noise immunity, but also compensates for sensitivity issues with targets of varying sizes and changing power supply voltages. Furthermore, it features standard internal temperature compensation, resulting in more accurate distance measurements. It's an excellent low-cost solution for indoor environments!
Sensors for distance measurement
Knowing the direction of an obstacle isn't enough for a robot; it also needs to know the exact distance to determine its next move. This is where range sensors come in. Ultrasonic range sensors are a common type, relying on the time difference between the emission, reflection, and reception of ultrasonic waves to determine distance—similar to how bats use them, making it an application of biomimicry.
The MaxBotix MB1014 ultrasonic human ranging sensor is designed for pedestrian and object detection. It allows multiple sensors to operate simultaneously in the same environment with little to no interference from other ultrasonic sensors. This sensor features a detection range of 380px to 6.45m, a 2.5V to 5.5V power supply, a typical current consumption of 2mA, an operating frequency of 42kHz, extremely low power consumption, and a short measurement cycle, making it ideal for multi-sensor operation or battery-powered systems. Once a command is received to begin ranging, the surrounding environment is immediately known. The MB1014's key features include easy-to-use logic (high/low) outputs and RS232 serial output. Therefore, the advantages of ultrasonic ranging are its large measurement range and the fact that it does not use optical signals, so the color of the measured object has no impact on the measurement results, but its cost is higher. Because it relies on the speed of sound for ranging, it is sensitive to factors affecting the speed of sound, such as temperature and wind speed, and has a relatively small maximum allowable angle.
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