TOF or Time of flight is a commonly used method to measure the distance of distant objects by various distance measurement sensor like ultrasonic sensor. The measurement of the time taken by a particle, wave or an object to travel a distance through a medium is referred to as Time-of-flight (TOF). This measurement can then be used to calculate the velocity or path length. It can also be used to learn about the particle or properties of the medium such as composition or flow rate. The traveling object can be detected directly or indirectly.
Ultrasonic distance measuring devices are one of the earliest devices using the principle of time of flight. These devices emit an ultrasonic pulse and measure the distance to a solid material based on the time taken by the wave to bounce back to the emitter. We used Ultrasonic sensor in many of our application to measure the distance.
The TOF principle is used for measuring the distance between a sensor and an object. The time taken by the signal to reach back to the sensor after reflecting from an object is measured and it is used to calculate the distance. Various types of signals (carriers) like sound, light can be used with the TOF principle. When TOF is used for range finding it is very powerful when emitting light rather than sound. Compared to ultrasound it provides faster reading, higher accuracy and greater range still maintaining its low weight, small size, and low power consumption characteristics.
Resources;
1. Interfacing VL6180 ToF Range Finder Sensor with Arduino for Distance Measurement
3. VL53L0X Arduino Interfacing and Programming