Line Following Robot

The Maze Robot is a device that incorporates multiple principles of the engineering, technology, computer science and physics spheres. Some of those principals are the work of DC Motors, the communication between the ARDUINO Uno  and all other components through our code, the work of IR sensors

Project Title

Line Following Robot

Project Area of Specialization

Robotics

Project Summary

The Maze Robot is a device that incorporates multiple principles of the engineering, technology, computer science and physics spheres. Some of those principals are the work of DC Motors, the communication between the ARDUINO Uno  and all other components through our code, the work of IR sensors and so on.  The main purpose of the robot is that IR sensors guide the robot and solve the maze. The robot is composed of many different materials.  However, the most vital ones are from the Arduino Company. The Arduino Uno that is the brain of robot because it contains the program/code by which we controlling the other components like dc gear motors, IR sensors etc. L298N H bridge module is controlling the DC Gear motors by which our robot is moving. The construction of maze robot is completely success and achieved its goals. It is able to solve the maze. Not only solve the maze it also gives feedback to the users about taking the turns. In this way anyone can follow the robot trajectory. The IR sensors proved that they are efficient tool for guiding the robot. The robot is composed of many different materials.  However, the most vital ones are from the Arduino Company. There are many improvements that can be applied such as the addition of a camera (to give the user better feedback), the addition of a variety of sensors (temperature sensor, radiation sensor, humidity sensor, etc.), and the addition of a flashlight and so on. Once all these improvements are made the Maze Robot can be an efficient tool for researchers.

Project Objectives

Our goal is to follow and optimize the maze. This can be done by using IR sensors which gives feedback to Arduino UNO. The code which is uploaded in Arduino UNO tells the robot when and where to turn. To make self-controlled dynamic maze solving robot. To make a robot that not only solve the maze but also gives the feedback about the path that a user is taking. Also one of it’s objective is to send it in a mine where workers needs to work and to check the report of interior view of mine this robot is equal to the task.

Project Implementation Method

Our project includes both hardware and software. We are working on both side by side. First we made a body of our robot. There are many designs for the robot but according to our project car is a suitable design. Now in order to make a car we need a base on which we are going to put other components of robot and three tires (2 simple tires and one special tire that can be rotated at all 360 angles). These things are easily available in the market in the form a complete package (base of car, tires, nuts and bolts to join them). Next step is to join these tires with the base by using nuts and bolts. The most difficult part is to match the RPM (revolution per minute) of DC Gear Motors because if both are motors will not be of RPM then the car will not move straight, it will move out of the track. We have two DC gear motors and joined them with two tires at sides of the robot (one motor with right sided tire and the other with left sided tire). There is a third tire which is placed at front-middle of the robot base that has an ability to rotate in all the 360 degree angles and also to balance the robot. The next step is to give an eyes to our robot for this there are varieties of sensors available in the market but we have to choose the sensor wisely according to our project specifications. According to our project we have to follow the maze which consists of black and white color. The white color is used as background and black color is used to make the maze or pattern. So, we have chosen the sensor that can sense different colors because of this we chose IR-sensor. This sensor can sense the different colors easily on the long range. We used 7 IR-sensors and solded them on Vero-board and placed them on the front of the robot base in tilted form. We are using H-bridge module L298N to control the movement of our robot by controlling the motors. After giving the eyes to our robot now it’s time to make our robot intelligent. For this we are using an Arduino Uno which is programmed and then it serves as the brain of our robot. Its main function is to control all other components. DC gear motors are attached with H-Bridge module and H-Bridge module is connected to Arduino Uno. The IR sensors are also attached to Arduino. To make our robot work intelligently we have to program our Arduino Uno using the software called ‘ARDUINO IDE’. The programming language we are using is C++.

We are programming in such a way that IR sensors take the black colors as the right path and follows it while taking other colors as hurdle. So whenever our robot see a black line, it moves but when it see other color it stops. This is the working and implementation of maze solving robot.

Benefits of the Project

Some of the applications of this robot are listed below

Rescue operation

Navigation problems

Search operation

Medical attention

Military search and rescue

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

v Plastic base we use for the chassis because it’s a good insulator and while running our robot moves effectively with it

v Tyres are used for our robot so that it runs smoothly

v IR sensor use infra-red to emit and detect the amount of IR light that returns. The heat emitted by an object and the motion produced can also be detected by IR-Sensor.

v Arduino UNO is a microcontroller board which is supported by ATmega328. It contains 14 I/O digital pins (from which 6 are used as Pulse Width Modulation outputs), 6 analogue inputs, a 16 MHz ceramic resonator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button. It has everything which is required to support the microcontroller. We have to simply connect it to a computer with a USB cable or we can attach an AC-to-DC adapter or battery to bring in the working state.

v DC Motor converts the direct current electrical energy into mechanical energy. DC Gear Motor is a type of DC Motor. It is a bit different from DC motor because in DC Motor when we apply power source and then terminates the source, DC motor does not stop right there but moves a little forward and then stops, while in case of DC Gear Motor when we apply the power source and then terminate it the Gear Motor stops right there because DC Gear motor is coupled with a gearbox or transmission. DC Gear motor has mechanical gears to change the speed/torque of the motor depending upon the application. In our project the robot has to move and stop quickly in order to solve the maze so we are using DC gear motors. In order to control the motor’s speed and direction, typically H-bridge is used but it can also be used for other projects depending on the use.

Chassis kit

Arduino Uno 

IR sensors 

DC gear motors (x2) 

L29 H-Bridge Module price

Jumper wires price

Total cost is

Final Deliverable of the Project

HW/SW integrated system

Type of Industry

IT

Technologies

Robotics

Sustainable Development Goals

Responsible Consumption and Production

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com