A Microcontroller-Based IR Range Finder System With Dynamic Range Enhancement

The present paper describes the development of a microcontroller-based infrared (IR) range finder system, employing two IR light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and an IR sensor. The system employs a software array-based approach where both the burst frequency of IR energy transmitted by the IR LEDs and the duration of this energy transmission in one sweep are progressively reduced, in a bid to increase the possibility of sensing the IR energy reflected back from the object. The proposed system can perform dynamic range enhancement, by utilizing an intelligent scheme, where, the output from the IR sensor system is used as a feedback to adaptively switch one of the IR LEDs. Experimental studies confirm that our developed system can indeed implement dynamic range enhancement, when compared to a conventional IR range finder system.