Infrared Tracking Robot (see Description!)

Alrighty, Here is my senior project I made for school. It's a dumb video because it doesn't show too much about what it does. To see how it works it needs to be darker out. Basically this little "guy" tracks light sources (especially ones high in infrared light). In the video you can see him boot up and go to his home position. He then begins tracking the brightest light. This just happens to be the window behind me. You can also see him charging. I had to program and build everything you see there. It uses a Atmel AT89C51ED2 microcontroller. I might make a better video later to show how cool it is. You can't really read the display well because of my camera, but it says "yum", then charging... with a % status. It also says "hey, plug me back in!" if you unplug his charging cable. Yeah, I had to make that too. Anyway, I'll be glad to answer any questions. Just Thought I'd put it on here for fun.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• infrared
• tracking
• robot
• microcontroller
• gadget
• electronics
• computer
• senior
• project
• AIRO

[Mugrunty]

The sensor array in the front gives about a 180 viewing angle to the front. The software has been upgraded since this video, and he no longer wiggles once locked onto a target. Feel free to ask an unbelievable amount of questions!

[Mugrunty]

Wow! Look at that, a comment! I almost forgot this video was even on here anymore. I might have to wait until later to answer more fully (just on my iPod during my lunch break), but it does not do a 360 degree scan. What you saw was it finding it's home position. There are opto sensors on both movable axes, such that it knows where it's limits are. When first turned on, it always goes to the same initial location and then begins tracking.

[Shaunakde]

Does it do a 360 scan before deciding which source is the brightest? Or do you have multiple sensors?

[Shaunakde]

Nice work. Sounds like a Gatling gun when it locks on~!

[Denis150386]

looks a little bit scary :)