Robot Senses
Close your eyes for just a moment. Can you hear sounds around you? Can you feel the seat beneath you? Can you smell anything in the air? You are using your senses right now! Your eyes see, your ears hear, your skin feels, your nose smells, and your tongue tastes. Your senses are the windows through which you notice the whole world. Robots need to notice the world too — and they have their own special tools for doing it. These tools are called sensors.
What Is a Sensor?
A sensor is a small part inside a robot that notices something about the world and sends that information to the robot's brain. Think of a sensor like a tiny reporter. It goes out, finds something important — a sound, a color, a bump, a distance — and rushes back to report it. The robot's brain then uses that report to decide what to do. Without sensors, a robot would be completely in the dark. It would have no idea if it was about to bump into a wall, whether it was in a bright room or a dark one, or whether someone was talking to it. Sensors are what make a robot able to respond to the world.
A sensor is a robot's way of noticing the world. Just like your five senses help you understand what is around you, sensors help a robot understand its environment.
Let us meet some common robot sensors and what they notice. A camera is like a robot's eyes. It lets the robot see shapes, colors, and movement. A microphone is like a robot's ears. It lets the robot pick up sounds and voices. A touch sensor is like a robot's skin. It lets the robot feel when it bumps into something or when someone presses a button on it. A distance sensor is like a robot's ability to guess how far away something is. It sends out a signal and measures how long it takes to bounce back. A tilt sensor is like the feeling in your ears when you lean to one side. It tells the robot which way it is facing or whether it is tipping over.
Flashcards — click each card to reveal the answer
Here is something fun to think about. Your senses work together all the time. When you are eating an orange, you see its color, smell its scent, feel its peel, hear the little squirt when you open it, and taste its sweetness all at once. Robots can do something similar! A well-designed robot uses many sensors together to build a richer picture of the world. The more a robot can sense, the better it can understand what is happening around it and make good decisions. In this module, we are going to explore robot senses one by one — starting today with the big picture, then zooming in on each one.
Almost every job a robot does depends on its sensors. A robot that delivers packages needs to sense walls and doors. A robot helper that answers questions needs to sense your voice. Good sensors lead to helpful robots!
Match each human sense to the robot sensor that works most like it.
Terms
Definitions
Drag terms onto their definitions, or click a term then click a definition to match.
What is the job of a sensor on a robot?
Which of these would a robot have the hardest time doing WITHOUT any sensors?
Your Own Sense Map
- Sit quietly for two minutes and pay attention to all your senses.
- On a piece of paper, draw a simple outline of a person (it can be a stick figure!).
- Around the figure, write or draw everything you noticed with each sense during those two minutes.
- Label each one: sight, sound, touch, smell, or taste.
- Now think like a robot designer: if you were building a robot to sit in your exact spot, which sensors would it need? Write them next to each sense on your drawing.
- Share your sensor map with someone and explain your choices.