Greetings everyone, and welcome to my article tutorial. Today, I'll guide you through the process of creating an Obstacle Avoiding Car using LiDAR Sensor and Arduino.
Project Overview:
This beginner-friendly DIY project teaches you how to build a self-driving car using an Arduino and a LiDAR sensor. You’ll learn essential skills like microcontroller programming, sensor integration, and motor control while creating a car that autonomously avoids obstacles. The project features a VL53L0X LiDAR sensor for accurate distance detection up to 2 meters and Mecanum wheels for smooth, omnidirectional movement—allowing your car to move forward, backward, sideways, and even rotate in place. With clear, step-by-step instructions, you’ll assemble a simple cardboard chassis, wire up the Adafruit L293D Motor Driver, and upload the code to your Arduino Uno, ending up with a fully functional autonomous vehicle. Perfect for hobbyists, students, or anyone curious about Arduino projects, robotics, or obstacle-avoiding robots, this tutorial makes it easy to get started and have fun building your own mini self-driving car!
Before beginning a huge shoutout to JLCMC for sponsoring.
Now, let's get started with our project!
Supplies
Electronic Components Required:
Arduino Uno
Adafruit L293D Motor Driver/Servo Shield
Mecanum Wheels
VL53L0X TOF Based LIDAR Sensor
10 × 14 Cm CardBoard for Chassis
Battery Holder
18650 Battery
Additional Tools:
Soldering Iron
Hot Glue
Cutter
Softwares:
Arduino IDE
Here is a step-by-step guide for making the Chassis:
Cut a piece of cardboard to the dimensions of 10cm by 14cm to create the chassis.
Obtain four-gear motors.
Attach the motors to the cardboard using a hot glue gun.
Wire the motors in a cross-word direction, as shown in the image above.
Obtain four rubber wheels for the motors.
Once these steps are completed, the chassis will be ready.
let's move to the next step...
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Mount the Shield on Your Arduino Uno
Line up all the pins on the bottom of the L293D shield with the headers on the Uno.
Press down gently until the shield is seated snugly.
DC Motors to the Adafruit L293D Shield Connection:
On the shield, you’ll see four pairs of screw terminals labeled M1, M2, M3, and M4.
Loosen both screws on the M1 terminals.
Insert Motor 1 wire into the left M1 screw and the other wire into the right M1 screw.
Tighten the screws so the wires don’t slip out.
Motor 2 → M2 terminals
Motor 3 → M3 terminals
Motor 4 → M4 terminals
Just the same: loosen, insert each wire into the two screws, then tighten.
LiDAR stands for “light detection and ranging,” Essentially, LiDAR works by emitting laser pulses in all directions and measuring how long it takes for each pulse to bounce back from an object. Since we know the speed of light, that time-of-flight measurement tells us exactly how far away the object is.
Imagine having hundreds of thousands of tiny laser pointers inside one sensor, each firing one at a time all around the room. Each time a pulse hits an object, the sensor measures the return time. For example, it takes twice as long for a pulse to return from an object 20 feet away compared to one 10 feet away—because light travels that much farther.
You might wonder: how does the sensor keep track of 640,000 laser pulses per second? Amazingly, they don’t all fire simultaneously. They fire sequentially—one after another—so the sensor only needs to time each pulse individually. This is possible because light is so fast that even if you slowed time down dramatically—say, so that the return from a 10 ft object takes your “slow-mo” clock four seconds—you could still wait 30 minutes on that slow-mo timescale before sending the next pulse. In reality, the pulses happen so quickly that the sensor can easily distinguish each one, even at hundreds of thousands of pulses per second.
VL53L0X LIDAR Sensor to Arduino Uno:
Connect VL53L0X VCC → Arduino 5V
Connect VL53L0X GND → Arduino GND
Connect VL53L0X SDA → Arduino A4 (SDA)
Connect VL53L0X SCL → Arduino A5 (SCL)
That’s it! After these four wires are in place, we are ready to upload the Arduino sketch.
Follow the steps:
Connect the Arduino uno to your Computer.
To install the library, open the Library Manager, search for “VL53L0X,” scroll down, and install the Adafruit library for VL53L0X TOF Based LIDAR Sensor. To install the AFMotor.h library, type “adafruit motor” and install the Adafruit Motor Shield library.
Then copy and paste this code:
// LiDAR based Autonomous car || Obstacle Avoiding
// Created By roboattic Lab
// Contact me here https://www.instagram.com/roboattic_lab/
#include <AFMotor.h>
#include <Adafruit_VL53L0X.h>
#include <Wire.h>
#define MAX_DISTANCE 200
#define MAX_SPEED 190
#define MAX_SPEED_OFFSET 20
AF_DCMotor motor1(1, MOTOR12_1KHZ);
AF_DCMotor motor2(2, MOTOR12_1KHZ);
AF_DCMotor motor3(3, MOTOR34_1KHZ);
AF_DCMotor motor4(4, MOTOR34_1KHZ);
Adafruit_VL53L0X lox = Adafruit_VL53L0X();
boolean goesForward = false;
int distance = 100;
int speedSet = 0;
void setup() {
Serial.begin(115200);
delay(10);
Serial.println("VL53L0X test");
// Initialize I2C
Wire.begin();
// Add this to setup() before lox.begin() to scan for devices
Serial.println("Scanning I2C bus...");
for (byte i = 8; i < 120; i++) {
Wire.beginTransmission(i);
if (Wire.endTransmission() == 0) {
Serial.print("Found device at address: 0x");
Serial.println(i, HEX);
}
}
// Try to initialize the VL53L0X (only call begin() once)
if (!lox.begin()) {
Serial.println("Failed to find VL53L0X sensor. Check wiring!");
while (1)
; // Stop execution if sensor not found
}
Serial.println("VL53L0X initialized successfully.");
}
void loop() {
VL53L0X_RangingMeasurementData_t measure;
lox.rangingTest(&measure, false);
if (measure.RangeStatus == 4) {
Serial.println("Out of range");
} else {
distance = measure.RangeMilliMeter / 10;
}
// Print the distance to the serial monitor (for debugging)
Serial.print("Distance: ");
Serial.print(distance);
Serial.println(" cm");
int distanceR = 0;
int distanceL = 0;
delay(40);
if (distance <= 15) {
moveStop();
delay(100);
moveBackward();
delay(300);
moveStop();
delay(200);
distanceR = lookRight();
delay(200);
distanceL = lookLeft();
delay(200);
if (distanceR >= distanceL) {
turnRight();
moveStop();
} else {
turnLeft();
moveStop();
}
} else {
moveForward();
}
}
int lookRight() {
rotateRight();
delay(500);
VL53L0X_RangingMeasurementData_t measure;
lox.rangingTest(&measure, false);
if (measure.RangeStatus == 4) {
Serial.println("Out of range");
} else {
distance = measure.RangeMilliMeter / 10;
}
delay(500);
rotateLeft();
return distance;
delay(100);
}
int lookLeft() {
rotateLeft();
delay(500);
VL53L0X_RangingMeasurementData_t measure;
lox.rangingTest(&measure, false);
if (measure.RangeStatus == 4) {
Serial.println("Out of range");
} else {
distance = measure.RangeMilliMeter / 10;
}
delay(500);
rotateRight();
return distance;
delay(100);
}
void moveStop() {
motor1.run(RELEASE);
motor2.run(RELEASE);
motor3.run(RELEASE);
motor4.run(RELEASE);
}
void moveForward() {
if (!goesForward) {
goesForward = true;
motor1.run(FORWARD);
motor2.run(FORWARD);
motor3.run(FORWARD);
motor4.run(FORWARD);
for (speedSet = 0; speedSet < MAX_SPEED; speedSet += 2) // slowly bring the speed up to avoid loading down the batteries too quickly
{
motor1.setSpeed(speedSet);
motor2.setSpeed(speedSet);
motor3.setSpeed(speedSet);
motor4.setSpeed(speedSet);
delay(5);
}
}
}
void moveBackward() {
goesForward = false;
motor1.run(BACKWARD);
motor2.run(BACKWARD);
motor3.run(BACKWARD);
motor4.run(BACKWARD);
for (speedSet = 0; speedSet < MAX_SPEED; speedSet += 2) // slowly bring the speed up to avoid loading down the batteries too quickly
{
motor1.setSpeed(speedSet);
motor2.setSpeed(speedSet);
motor3.setSpeed(speedSet);
motor4.setSpeed(speedSet);
delay(5);
}
}
void turnRight() {
motor1.run(FORWARD);
motor2.run(FORWARD);
motor3.run(BACKWARD);
motor4.run(BACKWARD);
delay(500);
motor1.run(FORWARD);
motor2.run(FORWARD);
motor3.run(FORWARD);
motor4.run(FORWARD);
}
void turnLeft() {
motor1.run(BACKWARD);
motor2.run(BACKWARD);
motor3.run(FORWARD);
motor4.run(FORWARD);
delay(500);
motor1.run(FORWARD);
motor2.run(FORWARD);
motor3.run(FORWARD);
motor4.run(FORWARD);
}
void rotateLeft() {
motor2.run(FORWARD);
motor1.run(FORWARD);
motor4.run(BACKWARD);
motor3.run(BACKWARD);
}
void rotateRight() {
motor2.run(BACKWARD);
motor1.run(BACKWARD);
motor4.run(FORWARD);
motor3.run(FORWARD);
}Congratulations! You’ve successfully built your Obstacle Avoiding Car using LiDAR Sensor and Arduino. Demonstration video of this project can be viewed here: Watch Now
Thank you for your interest in this project. If you have any questions or suggestions for future projects, please leave a comment and I will do my best to assist you.
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