Lego Mindstorm Sensors
The education version of the Lego Mindstorm kit comes with the following 4 sensors
Touch Sensors- The touch sensor has a push button switch at one end. When the button is pushed, the switch completes the circuit and sends electricity back to the EV3 Brain. When the button is released, the circuit is broken and no electricity flows. The EV3 brick interperates the pushed button (complete circuit) as "1" and the not pushed button (open circuit) as "0". Depending on where the touch senors is attached to a robot, it could tell to the EV3 brick when the robot runs into something. It could also be used to sense the edge of a table, if it is holding something in a claw, or when a arm has reached its limit of motion.
Color Sensors- The color sensor has an LED light and light sensor next to each other on one end. The sensor can distinguish how much light it is receiving and what color that light is. It can be used to without the LED light off to sense ambient light (how much light is present in its environment). It can be used with the LED light on to sense how much light is being reflect back to it. This can be used to distinguish between black and white surfaces or as a proximity sensor (when more light is being reflected you are closer to an object). The sensor can also be used to distinguish between eight different colors (red, blue, green, yellow...).
Ultrasonic Range Finder - The range finder uses sound to determine how far away the next closest object is. It could be used to tell you how far away you are from an obstacle. You could write a program that said to drive forward until you are less than ten inches from an object. It could also be used sense the edge of a table (less then 10 cm = table, more than 10 cm = floor).
Gyro Sensor - The gyro sensor is used to measure rotation of the robot. It could be attached to the robot to sense when the robot turns left or right. It could be attached in a different orientation so that it would sense when the robot tilts up or down. The gyro sensor can measure how far it has rotated, for example, turn right 90 degrees. The gyro-sensor can also measure rate of rotation to control how fast it is turning.
