Electronic – Sensors to detect high speed object crossing plane

sensor

I'm looking to detect a somewhat small (5-20mm) high speed (600m/s) object crossing a stationary 0.5m x 0.5m plane. When the object crosses the plane, I want to know the X, Y.

I apologize for the very broad nature, but I'm just trying to figure out what kind of sensors could be used to construct such a device. I plan on using the arduino for processing, but am clueless wrt sensors. (I'm really a software guy – dont kill me!)

Thanks,
Chris

Best Answer

Do the math.

600 meters per second is 1342 miles/hour. Mach 2.0 is 680 m/sec. We're talking "bullet" here.

Assuming 5 mm for the projectile length, it will cross the plane in 8.33 microseconds. A 20mm projectile will take all of 33.3 microseconds.

The traditional way to measure the accuracy and precision of a bullet trajectory is to shoot it at a piece of paper, and see where the hole shows up.

You COULD use something like black construction paper, lit from behind (light OFF AXIS!) and use a TV camera to detect the sudden appearance of a bright spot where there wasn't one, where the newly-punched bullet hole is now letting light through. An Arduino is going to be kind of wimpy for image processing, though.

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