Capability:Time-of-Flight Sensing

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Time-of-Flight Sensing
Type Sensing
Measures/Controls Distance to objects (typically 30mm to 4000mm depending on sensor)
Common Hardware VL53L0X (up to 2m), VL53L1X (up to 4m), VL53L5CX (8×8 multizone), STMicroelectronics ToF sensors
Enables Activities Activity:Maze Solving, Activity:Room Mapping, obstacle avoidance, cliff detection
Status Stub - Not yet implemented in BRS robots


Time-of-Flight Sensing is a sensing capability that measures distance to objects by timing how long light takes to reflect back.

Overview

This is a stub page. This capability is not yet implemented in any BRS robot. This page exists to:

  • Document the concept for future implementation
  • Invite community members to add it to their robots
  • Provide a starting point for hardware selection

What It Measures

Distance to objects (typically 30mm to 4000mm depending on sensor)

Common Hardware

VL53L0X (up to 2m), VL53L1X (up to 4m), VL53L5CX (8×8 multizone), STMicroelectronics ToF sensors

Enables Activities

Adding this capability to your robot would enable:

Technical Considerations

  • **Advantages**: Accurate, fast response, immune to ambient light (uses IR)
  • **Disadvantages**: Narrow field of view, struggles with dark/absorptive surfaces
  • **Typical cost**: $3-8 per sensor
  • **Interface**: I²C
  • **Accuracy**: ±3% at short range, degrades with distance
  • **Update rate**: 10-100 Hz depending on mode

Contributing

Want to add this capability to your robot? Here's how:

  1. Select appropriate hardware (see "Common Hardware" above)
  2. Mount the hardware to your robot chassis
  3. Wire to your microcontroller
  4. Write driver code or use existing libraries
  5. Test and calibrate
  6. Document your implementation
  7. Update this page with your findings
  8. Share on Discord

See Also

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