Austin Blake has enlarged the classic school project of constructing a line-following robot, creating a full-size vehicle on which a person can actually ride.
The robot uses 32 Infra Red (IR) sensors to follow a black line on a concrete floor, with a steering motor from a power wheelchair to adjust its path.
An Arduino Mega Pro Mini handles the logic and a DIY servo to steer the robot, while the chassis is a modified Crazy Cart, chosen for its tight turning circle.
While the IR sensor array has been enlarged to nearly 0.5 metres wide, Blake had to tune the potentiometers for greater precision, and he had many crashes before achieving his desired smooth ride.
