Sensor board

The Sensor board is a 23x17mm with a dedicated STM32F3 microcontroller and the following features:

  • CAN interface over which sensor data are streamed over UAVCAN.
  • CAN bootloader for easy firmware update over the bus.
  • Distance time-of-flight sensor (VL6180X) can measure distances from 10mm to 100mm with 1mm resolution.
  • RGB Color sensor (TCS34725) with external illumination using a white LED
  • Molex Picoblade connection for wiring CAN in daisy chain.
  • SWD connector for flashing and debugging, with UART exposed on the same connector.
  • 2x M2 holes for mounting
  • Costs < 25 USD in components.

Current application software only supports the distance sensor. Color sensor support is work in progress.

Sensor board equiped on the end of our robot's SCARA arm

  • Hardware including KiCad files, the schematics in PDF, and gerber files.
  • Software using ChibiOS RTOS/HAL, and UAVCAN for communication.
  • Bootloader based on libOpenCM3 and a custom lightweight protocol.