I'm not aware of any documentation on these sensors -- we just tested them with a spinning rig. (Due to time constraints, the testing was never written up, sigh) We started with this app note from Sharp;

http://www.junun.org/MarkIII/datasheets/sharp-app-note.pdf

Dave Cook also has a handy writeup on the electrical issues for using the Sharp sensors;

http://www.robotroom.com/DistanceSensor.html

As I remember, our rig was just a small platform attached to a motor & speed control. The Sharp sensor, a battery and a magnetometer were hooked up to an Arduino pro Mini and a 2.4 Ghz Xbee for telemetry. We used the magnetometer interrupt for our tach, as we were already doing that for the monocopter configuration.

We were testing against flat surfaces (painted sheetrock and stretched Tyvek sheets.) The behavior we saw was that as the rate exceeded 500 RPM, the ranges would noticeably average against the wall (reading short as the angle approached perpendicular, then long as the angle departed perpendicular.) At about 600, the IR spot was apparently moving too fast across the PSD, and the sensor would return max range, with occasional readings if it read right at the perpendicular.

We were using the Arduino's analog to digital conversion, so we were reading well below the sensor's bandwidth (reported in the hobby community to be around 25 KHz), and we made no effort to identify whether a dedicated A to D chip would improve performance.

Hope this helps with your project,

-- Mike

My most reliable email is mike (at) bakula (dot) org.