Unit 4: Robot Vision Sensors - Practice Quiz

ECE246 — Sensors For Robotics 60 Questions
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1 What is the main purpose of a vision sensor in a robot?

Vision sensor generalities Easy
A. To generate hydraulic pressure
B. To detect and interpret visual information
C. To control battery temperature
D. To increase wheel friction

2 Which device is commonly used to capture images in a robotic vision system?

Vision sensor generalities Easy
A. Camera
B. Motor
C. Gearbox
D. Relay

3 What type of information does a 2D vision sensor primarily provide?

2D/3D sensors Easy
A. Width and height in an image
B. Motor speed and torque
C. Object temperature and pressure
D. Battery voltage and current

4 What additional information does a 3D vision sensor provide compared with a basic 2D sensor?

2D/3D sensors Easy
A. Depth information
B. More battery capacity
C. Higher motor voltage
D. Faster wheel rotation

5 Which connection is commonly used to transfer digital image data from a camera to a computer?

Interfacing of vision sensors Easy
A. USB
B. Resistor
C. Pulley
D. Fuse

6 Why is a driver often needed when connecting a vision sensor to a computer?

Interfacing of vision sensors Easy
A. To supply mechanical force to the robot arm
B. To increase the brightness of every object in the scene
C. To allow the computer to communicate with the sensor
D. To physically rotate the camera lens

7 What does SLAM stand for in mobile robotics?

SLAM Navigation Easy
A. Sensor Level Adjustment Method
B. Simultaneous Localization and Mapping
C. System Logic and Motorization
D. Sequential Light and Motion

8 During SLAM, what does localization mean?

SLAM Navigation Easy
A. Selecting the robot's communication speed
B. Measuring the battery's capacity
C. Changing the camera's color settings
D. Estimating the robot's position

9 What is the main goal of sensor fusion?

Sensor fusion technique Easy
A. To combine data from multiple sensors
B. To replace all sensors with one motor
C. To reduce the robot's number of wheels
D. To store images without processing them

10 Which combination is an example of sensor fusion in a robot?

Sensor fusion technique Easy
A. Gripper and chassis shape
B. Motor and gearbox paint
C. Camera and LiDAR data
D. Battery and wheel color

11 What does LiDAR use to measure the distance to objects?

LiDAR Easy
A. Laser light
B. Electrical heating
C. Magnetic paint
D. Mechanical springs

12 What type of output is commonly produced by a 2D LiDAR sensor?

LiDAR Easy
A. A list of motor temperatures only
B. A sequence of audio recordings
C. A scan of points in one plane
D. A table of battery charging times

13 What is image acquisition?

Image acquisition fundamentals Easy
A. Rotating a robot joint by hand
B. Compressing a motor spring
C. Capturing an image using a sensor
D. Changing the robot's tire size

14 What does image resolution describe?

Image acquisition fundamentals Easy
A. The weight of the camera cable
B. The voltage rating of a motor
C. The speed of a robot wheel
D. The number of pixels in an image

15 What is the function of an ADC?

ADC and DAC Easy
A. Amplifies only wireless signals
B. Stores images inside a camera lens
C. Converts analog signals to digital values
D. Converts digital values to mechanical motion

16 What is the function of a DAC?

ADC and DAC Easy
A. Converts light directly into mechanical force
B. Connects two batteries in parallel
C. Converts digital values to analog signals
D. Measures the physical size of a robot

17 How many main signal lines are normally used by the I2C communication protocol?

I2C Easy
A. Two
B. Three
C. One
D. Eight

18 Which communication protocol commonly uses separate lines for data input and data output?

SPI and UART communication Easy
A. I2C
B. UART
C. SPI
D. ADC

19 Which setting must usually match between two devices communicating through UART?

SPI and UART communication Easy
A. Baud rate
B. Lens diameter
C. Wheel radius
D. Battery chemistry

20 In ROS, what is commonly used to carry sensor data between software nodes?

ROS-based sensor communication Easy
A. Topics
B. Fuses
C. Gears
D. Hydraulic valves

21 A robot must detect the color and approximate location of objects on a conveyor belt. Which sensor is most suitable for this task?

Vision sensor generalities Medium
A. A temperature sensor
B. A monochrome camera
C. A single-point ultrasonic sensor
D. A color camera

22 A camera produces images with noticeable blur when a robot moves quickly. Which adjustment is most likely to reduce motion blur?

Vision sensor generalities Medium
A. Reduce the exposure time
B. Increase the exposure time
C. Lower the image resolution
D. Decrease the frame rate

23 A warehouse robot needs to determine the height of boxes stacked on a pallet. Which sensing approach is most appropriate?

2D/3D sensors Medium
A. A contact switch
B. A 3D depth camera
C. A 2D grayscale camera
D. A single photodiode

24 A stereo vision system uses two cameras separated by a baseline. If an object appears with a larger disparity between the two images, what can be inferred?

2D/3D sensors Medium
A. The object has lower brightness
B. The object has a smaller physical size
C. The object is farther away
D. The object is closer to the cameras

25 A camera outputs image frames at a rate higher than the robot controller can process. Which interface strategy helps prevent excessive buffering and delay?

Interfacing of vision sensors Medium
A. Process every frame twice
B. Use a frame queue without limits
C. Drop outdated frames
D. Increase sensor exposure time

26 A vision sensor and robot controller produce inconsistent measurements because their timestamps do not refer to the same clock. What is the best corrective action?

Interfacing of vision sensors Medium
A. Increase image brightness
B. Synchronize their clocks
C. Change the object color
D. Reduce camera resolution

27 During SLAM, a robot revisits a previously observed corridor and recognizes the location. Which SLAM function uses this observation to reduce accumulated drift?

SLAM Navigation Medium
A. Loop closure detection
B. Feature thresholding
C. Motor current control
D. Image compression

28 A robot uses a depth camera for visual SLAM in an environment with many textureless white walls. Which problem is most likely?

SLAM Navigation Medium
A. Overheating of the camera lens
B. Increased battery voltage
C. Excessive wheel traction
D. Insufficient visual features

29 An autonomous robot combines wheel odometry with camera measurements. Why is sensor fusion useful in this situation?

Sensor fusion technique Medium
A. It guarantees error-free localization
B. It eliminates all sensor delays
C. It combines complementary measurements
D. It removes the need for calibration

30 In a Kalman filter, the measurement noise covariance for a camera is increased because the camera is operating in poor lighting. What effect does this have?

Sensor fusion technique Medium
A. The filter doubles the camera rate
B. The filter trusts the camera more
C. The filter trusts the camera less
D. The filter ignores the prediction

31 A 2D LiDAR mounted on a mobile robot scans at a fixed height. Which limitation should be expected?

LiDAR Medium
A. It may miss objects above or below the scan plane
B. It always measures object color
C. It directly determines object material
D. It cannot measure any distance

32 A LiDAR sensor measures a round-trip laser travel time of . Using , what is the approximate target distance?

LiDAR Medium
A.
B.
C.
D.

33 A camera uses a rolling shutter while a robot arm moves rapidly during image capture. Which distortion may occur?

Image acquisition fundamentals Medium
A. Depth becomes independent of lighting
B. Straight objects may appear skewed
C. The image gains unlimited resolution
D. All pixels are exposed simultaneously

34 A camera has a focal length and a pixel size of . What is the approximate focal length in pixels?

Image acquisition fundamentals Medium
A. pixels
B. pixels
C. pixels
D. pixels

35 An 8-bit ADC uses a reference. What is its approximate voltage resolution per digital step?

ADC and DAC Medium
A.
B.
C.
D.

36 A sensor output changes from to , but the ADC reference is set to . What is the main disadvantage?

ADC and DAC Medium
A. The sampling frequency becomes zero
B. The sensor becomes digital
C. A portion of ADC resolution is unused
D. The ADC input becomes differential

37 Two I2C devices share the same bus and both attempt to transmit at the same time. What mechanism allows the bus to resolve this situation?

I2C Medium
A. Analog voltage amplification
B. A separate cable for each device
C. Arbitration based on bus levels
D. Fixed time delays only

38 A vision sensor must transfer large image data blocks to a controller over a short PCB connection. Which communication method is generally the better choice?

SPI and UART communication Medium
A. SPI with a dedicated chip-select line
B. I2C with no clock line
C. UART with no baud setting
D. A single digital output pin

39 A UART receiver reports framing errors when connected to a sensor. Which configuration mismatch is the most likely cause?

SPI and UART communication Medium
A. Different baud rates
B. Different ADC resolutions
C. Different LiDAR scan angles
D. Different camera focal lengths

40 In ROS, a LiDAR node publishes range scans while a navigation node consumes them. Which communication pattern is most appropriate?

ROS-based sensor communication Medium
A. A parameter server storing every scan
B. A service called continuously for each beam
C. A static transform replacing all measurements
D. A topic using a publish-subscribe model

41 A mobile robot uses a camera with a fixed focal length. An object moves from the image center toward the edge while maintaining constant distance from the camera. Which effect most directly explains the increasing geometric error in the estimated position?

Vision sensor generalities Hard
A. The object reflectance changes with its image coordinate
B. Radial distortion becomes more influential away from the optical axis
C. The camera baseline increases near the image boundary
D. The sensor frame rate decreases near the image boundary

42 A robot must estimate the metric distance to a textureless planar wall using a single passive camera. Which additional condition is necessary to make the depth estimate observable?

2D/3D sensors Hard
A. Known camera motion or a known geometric reference
B. A larger color gamut in the image sensor
C. A higher image resolution with the same viewpoint
D. A lower exposure time during image capture

43 A stereo camera has focal length pixels and baseline m. For a feature with disparity pixels, what is its estimated depth using ?

2D/3D sensors Hard
A. m
B. m
C. m
D. m

44 A camera streams frames with hardware timestamps, while the robot controller timestamps received packets. Variable Ethernet delay is present. Which design gives the most reliable temporal alignment with IMU data?

Interfacing of vision sensors Hard
A. Use camera capture timestamps and estimate a fixed clock offset
B. Average all timestamps after the frame queue becomes full
C. Assign every frame the timestamp of the nearest IMU packet
D. Use packet-arrival timestamps and ignore network delay variation

45 A vision sensor outputs 1280 x 720 monochrome images at 60 frames per second with 10-bit pixels. Ignoring protocol overhead, what minimum sustained payload bandwidth is required?

Interfacing of vision sensors Hard
A. 110.6 MB/s
B. 82.9 MB/s
C. 69.1 MB/s
D. 55.3 MB/s

46 In graph-based visual SLAM, loop closure adds a constraint between two previously distant poses. If the loop-closure measurement is incorrect but assigned very high confidence, what is the most likely consequence?

SLAM Navigation Hard
A. The IMU bias becomes exactly zero after optimization
B. The map scale becomes automatically observable and unbiased
C. Only the newest camera frame will be discarded
D. The optimizer may deform the map toward an incorrect global configuration

47 A robot performs monocular visual-inertial SLAM while moving with constant velocity along a straight line and observing a distant planar wall. Which observability issue is most concerning?

SLAM Navigation Hard
A. Constant velocity guarantees perfect estimation of accelerometer bias
B. Straight-line motion removes the need for feature tracking
C. Weak excitation makes scale and certain motion parameters poorly observable
D. A planar wall makes all camera pixels independent of camera motion

48 An extended Kalman filter fuses wheel odometry and camera pose measurements. The camera occasionally reports a pose with a covariance that is unrealistically small. What is the most appropriate response?

Sensor fusion technique Hard
A. Replace the innovation with the camera pose measurement directly
B. Set the wheel-odometry covariance to zero permanently
C. Inflate the camera covariance or use an outlier-rejection gate
D. Increase the camera update rate without changing its covariance

49 Two sensors measure the same state but their errors are correlated because both depend on the same visual feature extractor. If the fusion algorithm assumes independence, what error is most likely introduced?

Sensor fusion technique Hard
A. The fused estimate always equals the lower-rate sensor
B. The fused covariance becomes artificially overconfident
C. The measurement dimension is reduced to one scalar
D. The state transition matrix becomes noninvertible

50 A time-of-flight LiDAR emits a pulse and receives the reflection after ns. Assuming a direct round trip and propagation at m/s, what range is measured?

LiDAR Hard
A. m
B. m
C. m
D. m

51 A LiDAR mounted on a robot reports a wall that appears curved even though the wall is planar. Calibration shows the range values are correct but the angular encoder has a scale error. Which correction is most appropriate?

LiDAR Hard
A. Apply a constant range offset to every LiDAR return
B. Increase the intensity threshold for all reflected points
C. Calibrate the angular scale and reconstruct points using corrected bearings
D. Replace Cartesian coordinates with image pixel coordinates

52 A LiDAR scan is acquired while a robot rotates rapidly. Points from the beginning and end of the scan are transformed using the robot pose at the scan midpoint. What artifact is most likely?

LiDAR Hard
A. A constant reduction in the LiDAR maximum range
B. Quantization noise that changes only return intensity
C. Motion distortion that bends or displaces stationary structures
D. Aliasing confined to the ADC reference voltage

53 A camera captures a rapidly rotating fan using a rolling shutter. The fan blades appear curved and their apparent positions vary across image rows. What is the primary cause?

Image acquisition fundamentals Hard
A. The lens aperture changes independently for each row
B. The color filter array changes the fan's angular velocity
C. Different rows are exposed at different times during motion
D. The ADC uses a different bit depth for each row

54 A sensor has full-well capacity electrons and read noise of electrons RMS. Assuming shot noise variance equals the number of collected electrons, at approximately how many electrons are shot noise and read noise equal in magnitude?

Image acquisition fundamentals Hard
A. electrons
B. electrons
C. electrons
D. electrons

55 An ideal 12-bit ADC uses a V reference. What is the approximate voltage resolution per least significant bit?

ADC and DAC Hard
A. mV
B. mV
C. mV
D. mV

56 A 10-bit ADC samples a signal containing frequencies up to 7 kHz. Which sampling strategy is required to prevent aliasing under ideal conditions?

ADC and DAC Hard
A. Sample exactly at 7 kHz and omit analog filtering
B. Sample above 10 kHz because ADC resolution sets the limit
C. Sample above 14 kHz and use an anti-aliasing filter
D. Sample below 14 kHz and reconstruct with a DAC

57 On an I2C bus, the SDA line remains low after a peripheral resets during a transaction. What recovery action is commonly used before reinitializing the bus controller?

I2C Hard
A. Disable all pull-up resistors and repeat the transaction
B. Toggle SCL manually up to nine times and generate a STOP condition
C. Increase the bus frequency until SDA is released
D. Drive SDA high with a push-pull output immediately

58 An SPI sensor samples data on the rising edge and changes data on the falling edge. Which mode is required if the clock idles low?

SPI Hard
A. CPOL = 0, CPHA = 1
B. CPOL = 0, CPHA = 0
C. CPOL = 1, CPHA = 1
D. CPOL = 1, CPHA = 0

59 An I2C bus operates at kbit/s with a total bus capacitance of pF. Why can an excessively large pull-up resistor cause communication failure?

I2C Hard
A. The RC rise time may be too long for the high-speed timing limits
B. The resistor forces SDA and SCL into push-pull operation
C. The resistor increases the ADC quantization step of the sensor
D. The resistor changes the slave address during arbitration

60 A UART link uses 8-N-1 framing at 115200 baud. Ignoring flow-control overhead, what is the maximum payload rate for 8-bit bytes?

SPI and UART communication Hard
A. 9,216 bytes/s
B. 14,400 bytes/s
C. 11,520 bytes/s
D. 10,240 bytes/s