So I had this idea of using a mouse as a sensor. Yes you heard me right, a mouse as a robotic sensor. So what would the mouse do? Well mice can track movement on a flat surface. So the mouse could tell us which way the robot turned. Here’s how it would work, the mouse is mounted in front of the robot.
The robot turns left and the mouse also turns with the robot. Because of the robot turned left it would give us readings that it also moved left. See where I’m going? I’ve never built this but thought I would share this anyways. Let me know if you build anything with this!
I had looked up the option of using an optical sensor used in the mouse for tracking movement a while back for one of the projects. It does look like people have used it in the past and there are a lot of resources available for it. Sparkfun used to sell a kit for it here. But they stopped selling it because the sensors disappeared. The sensors are available in China on Aliexpress if you want then, though you’ll have to get the PCB;s done and also get the optical element from China.
The big problem that everyone faced with these was that it was very much dependent on the surface you use it on for accurate readings similar to a mouse and it is prone to bad readings if the surface changes a lot.
True, not the best sensor. It could have a use, but only in a controlled invironment.like a giant mouse pad! 