Remember those line follower robots you played with as a child? Well, inventor Austin Blake decided to create a human-sized version. That’s right, this rideable line-following robot is a human-scale vehicle designed to navigate by tracking a line on the ground, built as a creative take on autonomous navigation.
The robot uses an Arduino Mega Pro Mini board to manage the many sensors and motor tasks needed for this project. Specifically, it handles 32 infrared (IR) sensors used to detect lines. These sensors form an array that spots a dark line on a lighter surface by sending out IR light and checking the reflection. Having 32 sensors makes tracking very accurate, letting the robot follow curves and stay on track even at a human-sized scale. This is a big step up from smaller line-following robots, which usually have just 4–8 sensors.
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A single drive motor powers the robot, moving it forward (and maybe backward) along the line. The motor is probably a powerful DC motor or brushless DC (BLDC) motor, as it has to carry a human rider and maintain a consistent speed. It works with a motor driver, letting the Arduino adjust the speed through PWM (pulse-width modulation).
Another motor takes care of steering, directing the robot to stick to the line. It’s probably a DC motor with a gearbox or a servo motor, based on the steering setup. The steering motor follows the Arduino’s instructions using sensor data, turning the robot to keep on the line’s route. A servo motor is great for exact angle control, while a geared DC motor could be used for a more robust design.
Line followers are amazing. I work in the automotive industry, and the first time I visited the manufacturing facility I was amazed at how many line followers there are. Dozens of robots all communicating with each other to keep supplying the production line with the parts needed, all that while also stopping automatically to recharge and using multiple sensors to detect people, who are free to walk over the lines and side by side with the robots.
It’s trully an impressive tech that has come very far,” said one commenter.
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