Connecting the BeagleBone Black to a USB sonar sensor
Now that you have a mobile platform and your robot can move, you will want to check if your robot could run into something. One of my favorite ways to do this is using a sonar sensor. First: a little tutorial on sonar sensors. This type of sensor uses ultrasonic sound to calculate the distance to an object. The sound wave travels out from the sensor, as illustrated here:
The device sends out a sound wave ten times a second. If an object is in the path of these waves, then the waves reflect off the object, sending waves that return to the sensor, as shown here:
The sensor then measures any return. It uses the time difference between when the sound wave was sent out and when it returned, to measure the distance to the object.
Prepare for lift off
The first thing you'll want to do is connect the USB sonar sensor to your PC, just to make sure everything works well. Here are the steps:
First, download the terminal emulator SW from http://www.maxbotix...
