Week 4: Second Glasses with LIDAR Sensor

Following the completion of the ultrasonic sensor glasses in week 3, we set our goals for week 4: 

1. Make a second pair of glasses but replace the center ultrasonic sensor with a LIDAR sensor.
2. Adjust the Arduino code accordingly to operate with both the LIDAR sensor and two ultrasonic sensors.
3. Solder the Arduino board with the sensors and install them on a second frame.

The LIDAR sensor was implemented because it possesses a much greater range than ultrasonic and narrower field of view making it much better at detecting obstacles further away.

The second frame shown in figure 1 was designed using Fusion360 similarly to the first frame

Figure 1. 3D design of the second frame with a center LIDAR sensor holder

This week's accomplishments:

After various testing, we finally got the sensors to work on a breadboard. Afterwards, we began soldering the Arduino and the sensors together and successfully installed them on the 3D printed frame .

Figure 2. Obstacle Detecting Glasses with a center LIDAR sensor

Figure 3. Video demonstration of the glasses with LIDAR with a distance measurement from each sensor

The issues that we encountered:

Similarly to the first pair of glasses, the frames required some intricate soldering to avoid burning the 3D printed glasses as they are made of plastic.

Furthermore, the wires from the speakers are extremely delicate as any sudden force can tear the wires out of the speakers. 

How the issue was solved:

The delicate wires were once again replaced with better cables of greater lengths and soldered them on the speakers, which proved to be a rather difficult task since we could overheat the speakers. Ultimately, we successfully soldered the wires in place and installed them on the frames.

End of week 4:

This concludes our lab work for the project. Overall, we were successful in creating an obstacle detecting glasses with both ultrasonic and LIDAR sensors.