I have been participating in an annual competition called Mobot (Mobile Robot Race) at Carnegie Mellon University for the last two years. The objective is to build a line following robot to follow a line drawn outside on a sidewalk on the CMU campus. The 2011 race will be in two weeks during CMU's spring carnival and I have been documenting my progress in building the robot on a
separate blog. We use infrared LED-sensor pairs to detect the reflectiveness of parts of the ground. The white line we have to follow will reflect the most light, so this way we should be able to follow it to the goal. Challenges in completing the task are: the inconsistency of whiteness of the line, gaps between the blocks of concrete in the sidewalk, two very steep hills, and decision points where the line splits and the robot has to go in a pre-determined direction.
Up to this point I have been able to complete half of the course (up to the decision points) at most. Hopefully, this year we will go farther. However, I have set myself a cost goal of under $50, which I try to adhere to. My robot from Mobot Races 2009 was $20 and the one from Mobot Races 2010 was $50. Below are pictures the robots (unfortunately after I've salvaged some parts):
