Characteristics of Distance Errors of Infrared Sensor Relation to Colour Surfaces

Abstract This paper deals with the determination of the absolute errors of a small time of flight (ToF) distance sensor with respect to coloured surfaces at different illumination intensities. The aim was to determine the absolute error of the measured distance by the VL53L1X sensor when set to short-mode and long-mode at different illumination intensities: 10 lx and 350 lx depending on the coloured surface using regression analysis methods. The research was performed using 7 colour samples with different spectral colours determined according to the CIE Lab colour model. Based on the performed experiments, it was found that the error at different sensor settings, change of colour surface and different illumination intensity is approximated by a linear function only up to a certain measured distance. The process is influenced by proposed factors such as: illumination intensity, coloured surface with different illumination reflectance and signal-noise parameters of the tested sensor during the experiment.