Arduino Ultrasonic distance sensor

The Ultrasonic sensor or HC-SRO4 is used to measure the distance of the object using SONAR.

It emits the Ultrasound at a frequency of 40KHZ or 40000 Hz. The frequency travels through the air and strikes the object on its path. The rays bounce back from the object and reach back to the module.

The four terminals of HC-SRO4 are VCC, TRIG, ECHO, and GND. The voltage supply or VCC is +5V. We can connect the ECHO and TRIG terminal to any of the digital I/O pin on the specific Arduino board.

The Ultrasonic sensors work best for medium ranges.

The resolution is 0.3cm.

The medium ranges of the sensor are 10cm to 3m. It works best at this duration.

The maximum range the sensor may detect is 4.5m.

How does Ultrasonic sensor work?

Let's understand how the sensor works.

It sends ultra-high frequency samples.

When samples strike the object, it bounces back from the object.

The distance sensor reports the time it takes between the sending and receiving of the samples.

Example

Let's consider an example.

An object is 40cm away from the Ultrasonic sensor. The speed of sound in air is 340m/s. We need to calculate the time (in Microseconds).

Solution:

v = 340m/s = 0.034cm/us (centimeter/microseconds)
time = distance/speed
time = 40/0.034
time = 1176 microseconds

The speed of sound from the echo pin will double because the wave travels forward and backward (bounces).

So, to calculate the distance, we need to divide it by 2. It is shown below:

distance = time x speed of sound/2
distance = time x 0.034/2

Structure of Ultrasonic Sensor

The structure of HC-SRO4 is shown below:

Ultrasonic sensor Timing Diagram

We will set the TRIG pin to HIGH for some time (about 3 to 100 microseconds). As soon the TRIG pin is LOW, the Ultrasonic sensor sends the pulses and sets the ECHO pin to HIGH. When the sensor gets the reflected pulses, it sets the ECHO pin to LOW. We need to measure the time for which the ECHO pin was HIGH.

The timing diagram of the ultrasonic sensor HC-SRO4 is shown below:

Let's start creating the Arduino ultrasonic sensor to measure distance.

Hardware Required

The components required to create the project are listed below:

Arduino UNO R3 board (We can also use any Arduino board)
Jump wires
Ultrasonic sensor HC-SRO4
Breadboard

Principle

We need to first set the TRIG (triggered) pin at HIGH. It will send out the burst of 8 cycles called the sonic burst, which will travel at the sound speed. It will be further received by the ECHO pin. The time traveled by the sound wave is considered the ECHO pin's output time in microseconds.

We will use the PulseIn() function to read the time from the output of the ECHO pin. It will wait for the specified pin to go HIGH and LOW. The function would return the timing at the end.

The TRIG pin is set LOW for 4 microseconds and then HIGH for 15 microseconds.

The timing will be calculated in microseconds.

Procedure

The steps to connect the Ultrasonic sensor to the board are listed below:

Connect the VCC pin of HC-SRO4 to 5V of the Arduino board.
Connect the GND pin of HC-SRO4 to GND of the Arduino board.
Connect the TRIG pin of HC-SRO4 to pin 6 of the Arduino board.
Connect the ECHO pin of HC-SRO4 to pin 5 of the Arduino board.

Sketch

Consider the below code:

#define ECHOpin 5 // it defines the ECHO pin of the sensor to pin 5 of Arduino
#define TRIGpin 6 
// we have defined the variable
long duration; // variable for the duration of sound wave travel
int distance; // variable for the distance measurement
void setup() 
{
  pinMode(TRIGpin, OUTPUT); // It sets the ECHO pin as OUTPUT
  pinMode(ECHOpin, INPUT); // It sets the TRIG pin as INPUT
  Serial.begin(9600); // // Serial Communication at the rate of 9600 bps
  Serial.println("Test of the Ultrasonic Sensor HC-SR04"); // It will appear on Serial Monitor
  Serial.println("with the Arduino UNO R3 board");
}
void loop() 
{
  // It first sets the TRIG pin at LOW for 2 microseconds
  digitalWrite(TRIGpin, LOW);
  delayMicroseconds(4);
  // It now sets TRIG pin at HIGH for 15 microseconds
  digitalWrite(TRIGpin, HIGH);
  delayMicroseconds(15);
  digitalWrite(TRIGpin, LOW);
  // It will read the ECHO pin and will return the time 
  duration = pulseIn(ECHOpin, HIGH);
  // distance formula
  distance = duration*(0.034/2); // (speed in microseconds)
  // Speed of sound wave (340 m/s)divided by 2 (forward and backward bounce)
  // To display the distance on Serial Monitor
  Serial.print("Distance: ");
  Serial.print(distance);
  Serial.println(" cm"); //specified unit of distance
}