Impact of LEGO sensors in remote controlled robot

The functionality of a robot greatly depends on its sensory capability. Adding sensors to a robot is one major strategy to extend the robot´s function and intelligence. However, this strategy can only be effective if the performance of the sensors meet the requirements of the robot application. In particular, in many systems, it is crucial for the sensors to provide reliable updates on its value to the robot system. Accessing the sensors represents an overhead to the system and shall be taken into consideration when designing such robotic system. For a remote controlled robot, one significant overhead of accessing a sensor will be the communication delay. This paper investigates the impact of sensors in a remote controlled robot created from LEGO Mindstorms NXT kit. Communication activities and overhead when using LEGO sensors are reported. The results can serve a reference when designing a remote controlled robot using LEGO Mindstorms NXT kit.