line following robot info?

I am curious as to whether their is higher quality sensors for building a line following robot than I have noticed with some of the smaller robots. I have a fairly large electric motorized platform that I would like to turn into a line following robot, but it would need a fairly reliable system so it did not end up going where it was not supposed to. Also, I have heard that bright ambient light which I assume is what one would find in a large building with flourescent lightning can cause problems. So, I am curious as to how reliable I could make a line following robot be and whether it would be viable option to make an automated line following robot.

I would be using an industrial vehicle mounted PC mounted to an electrical motorized platform say 5 feet long by 3 feet wide with dual motors and already equiped with its own motor controller tied into two hand throttle systems one for each side of the robot. I know this is a bit ambitious to take on, but even if I had to buy an already developed system which hopefully would not be too expensive this would be exceptable also.

Sorry to be so long winded, but this is something I have been toying with for awhile and I was wondering if it is even possible to create such a large line following robot.

Roger

Reply to
R.H.
Loading thread data ...

Not higher qualiter exactly...Just something designed for use in such a large robot. Chances are it would have to be higher quality, as I don't think you're going to have a perfectly white surface with a perfectly black line on it. I haven't seen any sensors like this in my wanderings, as I usually stick to those smaller bots.

It's 100% possible. The questi> I am curious as to whether their is higher quality sensors for

Reply to
Alex Wisnieski

A lot of industrial AGVs does this, so it is possible (to do a large base with line following). For COTS sensors have a look at

formatting link
Take care

Sjur

Reply to
Sjur Vestli

There is not really any difference between a small robot and a large robot in line followiing. For all practical purposes the sensors used for both robots are the same. The difference is how you use the sensors and solve the problems, such as daylight, florescent lighting, speed, et cetera. I would suggest you build a small robot, and have it successfully negotiate the line following path you need to have it follow. When you get it working well, making a larger robot perform the same task will be almost trivial at that point.

Some questions you should answer are: A. What type of line do you need the robot to follow? Such as black on white, white on black. Or red on concrete color. Or is it a invisible line, only detetible under UV or IR wave lengths. and so on. Or is it a magnetic resonant wire under a carpet. Or a wire under a carpet that outputs a weak RF signal.

B. Does it really need lines? Wall following can be better in some locations due to the different kinds of floors, such as asphalt, to concrete, to carpet to concrete to asphalt to grass to bare dirt or gravel.

C. How level or unlevel or uneven is the floor? Does it change levels? Are there pot holes to negotiate, small drop offs, door tracks across the path, steps et cetera to negotiate. This becomes important as it helps to determine how far fom the floor the sensors need to be.

D.How fast must the robot go to negotiate the course?

E. Does it need to have sensors to avoid hitting other things, such as people? Other robots or machinery. A big robot could hurt or injure people if it runs over someone. In a warehouse, what should the robot do, if someone drops a pallet of stuff on the line in front of the robot? Does it stop and waitfor them to move it later, or sould it know how to get around the obstruction and continue on it's job?

Reply to
Earl Bollinger

PolyTech Forum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.