Self driving robot car

[Wildcat1]

Is it possible to run the self driving robot car with only one sensor?

[rmarz]

Wildcat1 - I think it would be difficult in that there are a multitude of conditions that would have to be considered in the environment of the self driving vehicle. Perhaps a railroad engine, on a track, may only have to respond to one kind of obstacle in it's path. Maybe one sensor could work, minimally, in that scenario. I believe a vehicle, on a road system, would need several guidance and avoidance sensors to work successfully.

Rick Marz

[bfinio]

Hi Wildcat1:

I assume you are referring to this project (which Rick didn't realize when he replied to your post - the experts don't have every single project on the Science Buddies site memorized, so it helps to include a direct link to the project you're talking about):

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... p023.shtml

The answer is that you CAN make the robot work with only one sensor, IF your "track" only has turns in one direction. Look at Figure 3 in the Background tab of the project, and imagine that the robot only has one sensor on the left-hand side. The robot will still be able to handle left turns just fine. However, since it lacks the right-hand sensor, the robot will never "see" a right turn and will just drive off the track. It will also have problems with long straight sections of track since it won't know if it starts drifting off to the left. Ultimately, I think you could get it to work if your track is just a circle, and you orient the robot so it is always turning left.

Hope that helps,

-Ben