Sensors are significant devices that sense changes within the surroundings and change them into a signal that can be processed through a machine. So, these can detect many types of physical phenomena like heat, light, motion, sound, pressure, etc. Sensors are available everywhere around us. Likewise, a line sensor is a versatile component used for precise line tracking. This device is designed to notice and understand data from boundaries or lines within its environment. So these lines can be physical, like on a factory floor, a road (or) digital. Line sensors are used in different applications of industrial sectors like automotive, manufacturing, electronics, agriculture, etc. This article discusses an overview of the KY-033 sensor module, its working, and its applications.
What is the KY-033 Sensor Module?
A KY-033 is a line tracking sensor module used commonly in robotics projects to notice the occurrence of a dark row on a light surface. So, it allows a robot to track a path by measuring the quantity of IR light replicated back from the surface. It is a small module that includes an IR LED as an emitter & a phototransistor as a receiver that generates a digital signal based on the reflected light level. So, a high signal indicates a light surface, whereas a low signal indicates a dark line.
How KY-033 Sensor Module Work?
The working principle of the KY-033 line tracking sensor is to emit IR light after that, it detects how much of that light can be reflected to it. So, it determines if a light-absorbing surface or light-reflecting is ahead of it; this permits it to follow a dark line against a lighter background, used commonly in robotics to track a pre-defined lane by noticing a black path on a white plane.
This sensor includes an IR LED & a phototransistor where the LED emits light and the photoresistor detects the reproduced light. Whenever this sensor is placed above a dark surface, most of the produced IR light can be absorbed resulting in a low signal at the receiver. On the other hand, when this sensor is placed above a light surface, then more light can be reflected and emit a high signal. So, this sensor emits a digital output signal, which means it outputs either a low-voltage or a high voltage, indicating light and dark surfaces.
Pin Configuration:
The KY-033 sensor module pin configuration is shown below. This IC includes three pins, which are explained below.
KY-033 Sensor Pin Configuration
- Pin (VCC/power): It is a power supply pin of a line tracking sensor that supplies to the module.
- Pin (GND/ground): It is the ground pin of the sensor module.
- Pin (OUT/output): It is an output pin of the module that provides a digital signal that indicates whether the sensor module detects a black path or not.
Components
KY-033 line sensor module mainly includes three significant components: TRRT:5000 reflective optical sensor, potentiometer, and LM393 comparator IC, which are explained below.
TRRT5000 reflective optical sensor of this module includes an infrared emitter & infrared receiver.
The potentiometer or trim pot of this module on the sensor module is used to adjust sensitivity, optimize different surfaces, and calibration.
The potentiometer allows you to correct the module’s sensitivity to better notice variations within the surface, like the difference between a line & its background.
Different surfaces can reflect IR light in a different ways by affecting the capacity of the module to notice lines precisely. This potentiometer allows you to optimize the sensitivity of the module for a variety of surfaces by ensuring consistent performance across different surroundings.
The potentiometer is utilized mainly for calibration purposes, so the potentiometer is adjusted to calibrate the sensor module with specific lighting conditions (or) surface materials within line tracking applications.
An LM393 comparator IC compares the created signal by the infrared receiver with the predefined value throughout the potentiometer to control the condition of the digital output.
Features & Specifications:
The features and specifications of the KY-033 sensor module include the following.
- KY-033 is a line-tracking sensor module.
- The sensor type is IR reflective.
- This module includes three terminals.
- Its operating voltage ranges from 3.3V to 5V DC.
- Typical current consumption is 20mA.
- The output type is a digital signal.
- Detection distance ranges from 2mm to 10mm.
- Working current ranges from 18 to 30mA
- Sensitivity adjustment includes a potentiometer to regulate detection sensitivity.
- Its operating temperature ranges from 0°C to 50°C or 32°F to 122°F.
Equivalents & Alternatives
Equivalent to the KY-033 line tracking sensor is TCRT5000. Alternative line sensor modules are QRE1113, HW-006 V1.3, and Sharp GP2Y0A21YK.
KY-033 Sensor Module Interfacing with Arduino & Buzzer
The KY-033 line tracking sensor interfacing with Arduino & buzzer is shown below. So, in this interfacing KY-033, the line tracking sensor is connected to the Arduino to control a buzzer.
>Thus, the required components making this interfacing include a KY-033 line tracking sensor, Arduino UNO, two LEDs, 220-ohm resistors, and a 5V buzzer. The connections of this interfacing follow as follows;
KY-033 Line Tracking Sensor Interfacing with Arduino
- Connect the GND pin of the line tracking sensor module to the GND of the Arduino board.
- Connect the o/p pin of the sensor module to the digital pin-2 of Arduino.
- Connect the VCC pin of the sensor to the 5V pin of the Arduino board.
- The D3 digital pin of the Arduino board with 220-ohm resistor’s one terminal & maintaining terminal is connected to the anode terminal of the LED, so the cathode terminal of the LED with the GND terminal.
- Likewise, connect the D4 digital pin of the Arduino board with the 220 ohm resistor’s one terminal. So the other terminal is connected to the remaining terminal of the resistor with the LED’s anode terminal, and the cathode is connected to the GND.
- The D5 digital pin of the Arduino board with the buzzer’s positive terminal, whereas the negative terminal is connected to the GND.
Code:
The required code for this interfacing is shown below.
#define sensor 2, buzzer 3;
#define red 4, green 5;
void setup() {
Serial.begin(9600);
pinMode(sensor,INPUT);
pinMode(buzzer,OUTPUT);
pinMode(green,OUTPUT);
pinMode(red,OUTPUT);
void loop() {
bool value = digitalRead(sensor);
if(value == 0)
{
digitalWrite(buzzer, HIGH);
digitalWrite(green, HIGH);
digitalWrite(red, HIGH);
}
else
{
digitalWrite(buzzer, LOW);
digitalWrite(green, LOW);
digitalWrite(red, LOW);
}
}
Working
Once the required code is uploaded, the interfacing circuit is tested with a similar black & white color line background. Once the sensor module detects the white surface, then the Arduino board will be turned on by the LED and the Buzzer. Similarly, when the sensor module detects the black color line, then the LED will be turned off, and the buzzer surface will be turned off. Once understand how to use this sensor, we can also design a line-following robot. For that, you require two sensors on two sides of the path you desire to follow. So after that, you can easily control the two robot motors, consequently.
Advantages & Disadvantages
The advantages of the KY-033 line tracking sensor include the following.
- KY-033 line tracking sensor design is straightforward, so it is simple to incorporate with different microcontroller boards.
- A potentiometer of this sensor allows many users to modify the detection threshold of the sensor by allowing adaptation to various lighting conditions & surface reflectivity.
- This sensor is inexpensive, so it is a better choice for beginner projects.
- The small footprint of this sensor module allows for simple integration into robot designs.
- This sensor module precisely detects contrasting lines between light and dark surfaces.
- This can be used basically for fundamental obstacle detection (or) transition detection in between different surface colors.
- This line sensor includes very good ambient reaction even in whole darkness.
The disadvantages of the KY-033 line tracking sensor include the following.
- This sensor module’s output can be easily affected when changes within ambient light are made. Thus, it leads to fake readings on surfaces by changing lighting conditions.
- This sensor module might not precisely detect the line, which causes tracking errors when the surface is textured or uneven.
- It struggles to track complex lines with sudden changes or sharp curves within width.
- The sensitivity of this sensor needs to be changed with a potentiometer, which needs careful calibration for best performance within different environments.
- This sensor might notice false lines in highly reflective surface conditions. Thus, it leads to inexact tracking.
Applications
The applications of the KY-033 sensor module include the following.
- A KY-033 sensor module is used mainly for applications wherever a device or a robot needs to track a separate line on a surface, like a black line above a white background.
- This sensor is used in designing automated guided vehicles, line-following robots, and robotic systems that need specific lane navigation with a predefined line.
- It is utilized in robotic competitions such as mini-sumo wherever robots need to stay in a selected line above the fighting arena.
- It is used on a conveyor belt to monitor the position of the object by tracking a stripe on the belt.
- This sensor is used in factories or warehouses to follow a path on the floor.
- It is used with different microcontroller platforms.
- It can also detect high contrast and large obstacles to measure the reflected infrared light.
- This line-tracking sensor module is used in robotics & automation applications.
Please refer to this link for the KY-033 sensor module datasheet.
Thus, this is an overview of the KY-033 sensor module or hunt sensor, it is a simple electronic component used widely to detect the occurrence of a contrasting line. This sensor detects the occurrence of a contrasting surface by simply measuring reflected IR light. It is used mainly for line following within robotics, wherever a robot vehicle can navigate through a dark line above a light surface. So, this sensor provides a high or low digital signal based on the detected surface. Thus, this sensor can be integrated easily with different microcontrollers through its easy pin configuration & adjustable sensitivity setting. Here is a question for you: what is the QRE1113 sensor?