AS7341 11-Channel Visible Light Sensor - Gravity Series

Although building little robot buddies is always fun, often presenting new challenges that, once overcome, can really help you advance your Electronics knowledge in a variety of different ways. However, rather than using real eyes, ears and other organs to sense the world around them like we do, robots have to rely on relatively simple Sensors by comparison, and this offers both benefits and drawbacks, as electronics sensors are typically limited to specific interactions with the world, but can be mixed together to possibly even surpass what a human is capable of in certain regards.

This AS71341 11-Channel Visible Light Sensor is one such “robotic sense module” that is built to provide colour recognition to robots, but rather than just being able to identify colour alone like many of the other Colour Recognition Sensors that are available, it can also identify brightness levels, Near-Infrared radiation, as well as even sensing flicker in the frequencies of 50Hz ad 60Hz. This, if used right, is even more accurate and reliable than our eyes, although of course still not quite as advanced, offering fresh new insights about the lighting in various environments that our human eyes would struggle to pick up on, and giving your robot some cool new functionality that technically surpasses human capabilities.

In terms of the technical properties of this sensor module, it is comprised of a total of 20 photoreceptors, offering 2 cells per colour, as well as 2 for light intensity, 1 for Near-Infrared and 1 for sensing flicker rates. This ultimately results in 8 channels for distinct colour bands, 1 channel for NIR, 1 channel for light intensity (clear) and 1 for the flicker, for a total of 11 channels that can be split and read separately or in combination to reveal the true nature of the light being sensed. This technically makes it a spectroradiometry sensor or spectral analyser or sorts, rather than a basic colour sensing module, while the integrated extra functions – such as the 16-bit L2F converter, 6 integrated ADC’s, internal interrupt handling, and clever 100mA LED driver built for flashing or illuminating scenes – ensuring that users typically get a lot more than they expect from these fancy little sensors.

So if you’ve always wanted to give your Robotics better sensing techniques to interact with and experience the world around, or if you are eager to use this module for other applications that require a more insightful look at the world or certain environments, then the AS7341 11-Channel Visible Light Sensor is a module that certainly won’t disappoint. Furthermore, while this module is already quite amazing, the Gravity Series connectors also make it super easy to interface with, ensuring that you can take full advantage of this module for whatever projects you’re busy working even with minimal experience.

Additional Resources:

• If you want to find out more about how this module works, how to take advantage of its cool functionality, as well as more insights and resources, the DFRobot AS7341 Visible Light Sensor Wiki is the perfect place to get started.

As self-proclaimed “Robo-holics”, DFRobot is a company comprised of over 100 staff members, of which 30% are engineers who love to build robots. It was started in 2008 with the goal of embracing and promoting open-source hardware, with a core focus on Arduino, Raspberry Pi and their very own LattePanda development boards. Since then, DFRobot have manufactured over 1300 unique modules, sensors and components that all work together and complement each other, allowing users like us to enjoy a full spectrum of cutting edge robotics and electronics without having to pay premium prices.

With the primary goal of developing and manufacturing great quality products, while making them accessible to as many people as possible, DFRobot are rapidly becoming one of the most common-place brands in the world of open-source robotics and electronics. With more than 1300 products developed in-house, and an impressive range of different categories and specialisations, there are few brands in the world who can compete in terms of quality, accessibility and genuine innovation.