Stair Sensing Qwiic System

Community Projects
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I need to sense stairs on a robot so it doesn’t go tumbling down. i’m hoping to use the quiic system. I was thinking that perhaps the proximity sensor VCNL4040 angled downward ahead of the robot might be appropriate. Though its width of detection might be a problem. Does anyone have thoughts or suggestions for might work within the Qwiic system? It appears to me that once you are using Qwiic system you can’t mix roll your own sensors. Is that correct? Thinking the ADC might be away around it, but not sure. Not sure. I’m new to much of this, programming background mainly. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I’m working on a Sphero RVR with a Raspberry Pi 3 B. Trying to put together a robot platform to teach python programming to my daughter.

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You could use a variety of methods to solve this issue. You could use lidar, IR sensors, or sonic sensors. We can’t tell you which way it HAS to be done, but the idea would just be scanning a distance range. If the sensor facing downward reports a value larger than limit ‘X’ then its likely a hole. Backup, turn, and start moving forward. Also, any sensor on our Qwiic ecosystem should be able to accomplish this.

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Thank you. Ordered the 4040s.