This automatic emergency braking system protects RC cars

It is a story as old as time (or at least the 1960s): kid gets an RC car for Christmas and excitedly takes it for spin, but crashes it into a wall within five minutes and tears ensue. The automotive industry has cut down on accidents by implementing automatic emergency braking safety features, so why can’t RC cars have something similar? They can and Narrow Studios proved it by creating their own DIY emergency braking system to protect their toy vehicle.

Christmas morning jokes aside, this is practical. Today’s RC cars can accelerate very quickly and reach surprisingly high top speeds, which means they’re easy to crash. These vehicles can easily cost several hundred dollars, so such crashes are a hit to both the ego and the wallet. The system made by Narrow Studios prevents those crashes and is relatively affordable to integrate.

The hardware necessary to add emergency braking to an RC car consists of two major components: an Arduino Nano board and ultrasonic sensors. A simple version of this system could be built with just one ultrasonic sensor, but Narrow Studios used four: two on the front bumper and one on each side.

The Arduino constantly monitors the ultrasonic sensors. Under normal circumstances, they won’t report seeing anything — or at least not anything close by. But if something like a wall is nearby, the Arduino will immediately go into action and send a braking command (via a PWM signal) to the RC receiver. That’s a Flysky FS-i6X in this case, but the process should work with most others.

It isn’t perfect and it isn’t very “smart,” but this system could genuinely prevent expensive crashes and that makes it worth considering if you have a nice RC car.