Line Following Robot

Robot drifting around a corner

In my third year of studies Lukas (a close friend of mine) came to speak to be about this competition the engineering department was organizing. They were organizing two competitions:

• Build a robot which can get out of a random maze the quickest.
• Build a website for the faculty.

I didn’t compete in the website developing contest since that year I was fed up of designing websites but Lukas and I decided to compete in the robot building competition. This was something neither of us have ever done and after we joined we discovered that most of the teams were from the engineering department and only a few teams were I.T. students.

Robot's View of the dreaded Maze

After we obtained the rules of the competition we found out that the optimal route will be marked on the floor of the maze so the robot could follow the line.

We were both busy at the time but we had managed to do research and discuss our next step. We decided on particular parts which allowed us to use our mad haxor I.T. skills to create the robot. The chassis was skilfully built by Lukas while I constructed the gear box and the microcontroller.

The gear box was used two engines (one for each wheel) and also had customizable gear ratios. Allowing us to decide on the amount of torque and top speed the robot would have. The engines and gear box impressed us. Using the top speed setting the robot was too fast for the microcontroller to cope (and also us to catch it once it ran malfunctioned) and on its highest torque setting the robot would leave a trail of rubber behind it. So we decided on a middle setting so not to smoke out the competition. However this setting still gave the robot enough speed and torque to draw blood from its creators though we managed to stop the uprising because we built a reset switch into the robot. Something they should of built into SkyNet.

The microcontroller was a kit developed by PICAXE. The kit came with all items we needed to program and debug the microcontroller. This allowed us to do what we do best… drink, use power tools and code. The robot used four I.R. sensors to find and follow the line, which would be placed on the base of the maze.

One week before the competition the dimensions of this line had changed so modifications had to be performed on the robot. We probably should of opened the bottle of Baileys after we drilled the holes into the chassis. Just image two guys drinking baileys and drink holes into a chassis. In the end we found a technique that worked for us though health and safety would of disapproved. In the end we managed to break the spirit of our wild robot into a tame, well trained, house broken robot. Below is footage of the robot traversing a maze after it had drawn blood from its creators’ a number of times.

Here is a brief explanation of how the robot functioned. On the front the robot had 4 I.R. emitters. The two middle ones are used to keep the robot travelling on a straight line while the two outriggers detect when a turn is approaching. Once it has to turn the micro-controller sticks on wheel into reverse while allowing the other to keep turn forward. This allowed the robot to turn as the expression goes on a dime. The robot would turn 30 degrees and then start searching for the center of the line. That is how the robot worked in a nutshell.

Me attempting to use the force during the presentation to choke my team mate.

So finally the day of the competition arrived and we found out that from the 15 teams or so that joined only three showed up, including us. One was from engineering and other was a fellow I.T. geek. All the teams had to do a 15 minute presentation describing how we solved the problem. Our presentation went well. However I had to really take deep breathes and at a couple of points restrain myself from tackling a certain someone. This person is not the professor who decided to that we were stupid and didn’t deserve to be in the competition. My team mate was kind enough to come to the event wearing a Manchester United kit. I almost dropped out of the competition when I saw him wearing that kit.

Finally it was time to release the robots. Armed guards were ready to shoot any robots that got out of line. The fellow I.T. geek’s robot was first to attack the maze. He placed the robot on the start line and commanded it to seek and destroy. However, the robot burnt out meaning it was a two horse race now.

Releasing the blood hungry robot.

It was now our turn to cry havoc and let slip the dog of war. We placed the robot on the start line and let it loose. It posted an excellent time. However, it wasn’t fast enough. Our competitor, Darth Vader, had beaten our robot by a couple of seconds. Each team was allowed three runs and on each run we furiously modified the code and the robot itself to obtain a better time. In the end we lost by half a second but it was still a memorable and fun experience.

The robot has then been put in a cage and is under 24 hour armed guard.

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