Line Following Robot

As a part of the electronics and robotics lessons I teach, we designed and made our first robot that follows a black line. The robot works by using two IR sensors to detect either side of the line. The sensor data is sent to an Arduino micro controller that alters a PWM signal to two current limited transistors that control the left and right motors. By having both motors on at the same time the vehicle moves forward but by only having only one motor on the vehicle will turn. The Arduino was then programmed using C++ and all runs nicely off a single 9 volt battery with switch.

Its only a basic robot that took only a few hours to design and build but it shows the fundamental principles at play when designing any electronic/mechanical project including ohms law, component characteristics, sensors and control systems, programming, gearing and chassis building. If we had more time then we would have built something bigger and better such as a quad-copter but with everything going on this wasn't possible. 

This is just a taster of the Arduino projects to come in the lab once its complete.