IR LED vs Photodiode

IR LED means Infrared Light Emitting Diode. The IR LED emits Infrared light which is not visible to human eye. We can find these IR LED's in our TV Remotes. IR LED's works like normal LED's but the material used in the core is different, it emits Infrared Light when current passed through it. These IR LED are used to detect obstacles ahead of the robot. The IR LED emits IR light which gets reflected if any obstacle is present in the direction of emitted IR ray, the reflected IR ray caught by Photodiode which calculates the reflected light strength. The higher the reflected IR ray strength, the closer is the obstacle and vice-verse. 

Photodiode is a light sensitive semi-conductor diode which converts the light energy into voltage or current based on the mode of operation. In general Photodiodes are operated in reverse bias condition. The clear Photodiode can detect visible and IR rays to limit the Photodiode to detect only IR rays a black cotting is applied to the glass of the Photodiode. The photodiode allows the current to pass through it if the photodiode is exposed to IR rays and it doesn't allow current to pass through it if no IR rays falls on it. The amount of current passed through the photodiode is directly proportional to amount of IR rays falls on it.