Line Following Robot - Single Sensor - PICAXE

My first attempt at a line following robot that I designed, built and programmed for my 2nd year college project in Computer & Electronic Engineering at GMIT.
http://www.gmit.ie/

The robot uses only one infrared emitter and detector pair and so is relatively slow as it has no angle of reference to the line. It is controlled using a single PICAXE08 microcontroller that can be programmed via a PCB mounted stereo jack.

I designed this robot from the scratch using Protel99SE, first to design the schematic then to lay out the PCB and finally to produce a gerber file for milling.

As Im not familiar with Basic, the language used by the PICAXE family and because this project was based more on electronics more than the programming side of my course, all programming is done on a flowchart based program called Pic Logicator. At the moment the robot is programmed to follow the line to the end, turn around, follow the line back to the start and finally shut down.

Mechanically the robot is a simple differential-drive setup with two individually controlled geared motors at the front and a free rolling ball caster at the rear. Everything is mounted on a clear perspex chassis that I also designed and cut to shape.

Thank you for watching!
http://www.youtube.com/user/Gary1988L

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• line
• track
• following
• follower
• tracker
• robot
• infra
• red
• infrared
• sensor
• circuit
• schematic
• pcb
• design
• CAD
• computer
• electronic
• engineering
• GMIT
• Galway
• Ireland
• 2010

[vickyron1]

How the robot learned that it the start point after returning.???

[Gary1988L]

@vickyron1 it knows it's back at the start when it finds the end of the line for a second time

[bhaveshg1000]

awsumme dude....bt which concept did u used here fr detecting d line..?is dis LED-PHOTODIODE concept..?

[Gary1988L]

@bhaveshg1000 I used an infrared emitter and detector pair (they look like black and white LED's at the front of the robot). The emitter constantly shines infrared light at the ground in front of the robot. The white surface reflects this light but the black line tends to absorb it. The detector can sense the different infrared light levels being reflected. This signal is amplified and sent to the microcontroller . Then based on the voltage level the micro can determine the robots position.

[FerrarisRock]

this is a college project? Im doing the same thing in my grade 10 technology course :P

[Gary1988L]

@FerrarisRock Yep its a 2nd year college project for my computer and electronic engineering course. We dont have grades in Ireland, is grade 10 school or college?

Good luck with yours!

[desbeans]

Cool project