I’ve been looking up information about different types of sensors this week. I focused on sensors I could find that are compatible for the Arduino.
Before we purchase any type of temperature sensor, I think we need to do a little experimentation in the physics department. In high school, the physics department had this really cool gizmo that you could plug all kinds of sensors into and it would record information onto the computer. I’m hoping one of our colleges has such a thing. It says in the 2010 TCHFFRC rules that some robots can detect which room the candle is in just by being in the doorway of the room. If we can find a sensor that is sensitive enough to detect a temperature change in a competition size room just by being in the doorway, that would save a lot of time in the competition. However, it still needs to be within our budget. I found a temperature sensor, I just don’t know if it is sensitive enough. Some experiments need to be done to determine whether this is possible within our budget or not.
I also found a sensor for sale that can detect an object at 5mm. It also can detect the difference between black (low reflective conditions) and white (high reflective conditions). This would be great, since the halls between the rooms in the competition space are black and the floors under the doorways are white.
This week, I would like to find out if I can use experiment with temperature change in the physics department. Hopefully the 2011 official rules will be released, so we can be certain we are planning for the right thing.
Sounds like you need a IR detector.