📡 Sonar Radar

An Arduino-based sonar radar system that sweeps an HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor on a servo motor and visualizes detected objects in real time on a radar-style display built with Processing.

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📖 Overview

The Sonar Radar is a two-part project combining an Arduino UNO and a Processing sketch to create a fully functional radar display. The Arduino sweeps an HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensor between 15° and 165° on a servo motor, continuously measuring distance and streaming angle-distance data pairs over serial. The Processing application reads this data and renders a live radar screen — complete with a rotating green sweep line, red object traces, range rings, and a status HUD. A buzzer provides proximity alerts with beep speed proportional to how close an object is.

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✨ Features

• 🔄 150° servo sweep — HC-SR04 scans from 15° to 165° and back continuously
• 📺 Real-time radar display — Processing renders a green radar screen with concentric range rings and angular grid lines
• 🔴 Object detection trace — detected objects within 40 cm are marked with a red line at the correct angle and distance
• 🔔 Proximity buzzer — beep rate scales with distance; faster beeps as objects get closer (within 20 cm)
• 📊 Live HUD — current angle, distance, and in/out-of-range status shown at the bottom of the display
• 🖥️ Serial data pipeline — Arduino streams angle,distance. packets; Processing parses and renders each frame

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🛠️ Hardware Components

Component	Quantity
Arduino UNO	1
HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor	1
SG90 Servo Motor	1
Piezo Buzzer	1
Breadboard	1
Jumper Wires	As needed

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💻 Software Requirements

Software	Purpose
Arduino IDE (1.8.x or 2.x)	Upload the .ino sketch to Arduino
Processing 4.x	Run the radar display sketch (.pde)

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🔌 Pin Connections

Component	Pin	Arduino Pin
HC-SR04	VCC	5V
HC-SR04	GND	GND
HC-SR04	TRIG	Digital 8
HC-SR04	ECHO	Digital 9
Servo Motor	Signal	Digital 12
Servo Motor	VCC	5V
Servo Motor	GND	GND
Buzzer	Signal	Digital 7
Buzzer	GND	GND

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🔌 Circuit Diagram

Built and simulated in Tinkercad

Breadboard View:

Schematic View:

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🚀 Getting Started

1. Upload the Arduino Sketch

1. Open Sonar_Radar.ino in the Arduino IDE
2. Select your board: Arduino UNO
3. Select the correct COM port and note it down (e.g. COM5)
4. Click Upload

2. Configure the Processing Sketch

Open Sonar_Radar_Processing.pde in Processing and update the COM port on line 21 to match your Arduino:

myPort = new Serial(this, "COM5", 9600); // Change COM5 to your port

On macOS/Linux, the port will look like:

myPort = new Serial(this, "/dev/ttyUSB0", 9600);

3. Run the Radar Display

1. Close the Arduino Serial Monitor (it blocks the COM port)
2. Press Run in Processing
3. The radar window (1200×700) will open and begin displaying live sweep data

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💻 How It Works

Servo sweeps 15° → 165° → 15° (continuously)
              ↓
HC-SR04 measures distance at each degree
              ↓
Arduino sends serial packet: "angle,distance."
              ↓
Processing parses each packet on '.' delimiter
              ↓
   ┌──────────────────────────────────┐
   │        Radar Display             │
   │  Green sweep line at iAngle      │
   │  Red trace if iDistance < 40cm   │
   │  HUD: Angle | Distance | Status  │
   └──────────────────────────────────┘
              ↓
  distance ≤ 20cm? → Buzzer beeps
  (faster beep = closer object)

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📡 Serial Data Format

The Arduino streams data in this format, terminated by a period:

angle,distance.

Example packets:

90,25.
91,24.
92,40.

Processing splits on , to extract the angle and on . to detect end of packet.

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📁 Project Structure

Sonar-Radar/
├── Sonar_Radar.ino                  # Arduino sketch (servo sweep + buzzer)
├── Sonar_Radar_Processing.pde       # Processing sketch (radar display)
├── Sonar_Radar_Circuit.png          # Tinkercad breadboard view
├── Sonar_Radar_Schematic.png        # Tinkercad schematic view
└── README.md

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🧠 What I Learned

• Coordinating serial communication between Arduino and a Processing application
• Designing a real-time radar visualization with concentric arcs, angular grid lines, and a sweeping line in Processing
• Using tone() with map() to create distance-proportional buzzer beep rates
• Parsing structured serial data packets with a custom delimiter scheme (angle,distance.)
• Translating physical sensor distance (cm) into pixel coordinates on a 2D display

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🔮 Future Improvements

• Replace the fixed COM port string with an auto-detect or dropdown selector in Processing
• Add colour-coded range zones (green → yellow → red) based on object proximity
• Record and export scan data to a CSV file for analysis
• Upgrade to a 360° rotating platform for full surround scanning
• Use an ESP8266/ESP32 to stream radar data over Wi-Fi to a browser-based display

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👤 Author

Deep Chatterjee
GitHub

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📄 License

This project is licensed under the MIT License — see LICENSE for details.