Hey there Robo-Girl,
xheavenlyx is right about searching on google. You'll get lots of different ideas there! I recently finished a line following competition, but a simpler one compared to the one you are doing.
For the microcontroller, our group used a
PIC16F877a micocontroller. I believe this is under $10. There should be schematics online available on what other components needed to use with this uC. If you are interested, I can upload the one that our seniors gave us for the competition. For example, you will need a voltage regulator, a crystal (for the frequency), capacitors, etc. You will need to know C programming to code the uC.. should be no problem since you are taking Computer Engineering
You will also need software to upload the code to the chip. Make sure you have a serial cable ready at hand.
If you dont want to use the uC, you can use
Voltage comparators instead. Google them up to find how to use 'em
For the motors, you can use a
Tamiya double-gearbox. You can get it from any Tamiya toy shop. The one we used was:
http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/ite...oduct-id=70168
Dont forget to get the matching wheels! You have an option of different gear ratios: 12.7: 1, 38.2:1, 114.7:1, 344.2:1. The smaller the ratio, that faster the wheel turns.. but it also produces little torque power (not good if your robot is kinda heavy). Don't forget, if you make your robot move TOO fast, it can overshoot the black line that it's tracking. We used the 38.2:1 ratio.
To use the motors, you need a motor driver. The
L293 IC should be suitable enough
By the way, each motor powers a wheel. If you instruct one motor to turn one direction and the other motor to turn the other direction, you'll make the robot steer, like a tank.
I suggest you use
phototransistors as the sensors.. I THINK its more accurate than LDRs. We had some probs when we used LDRs to detect the 0.5inch black line. If you want to use phototransistors, use
Infrared LEDs with it.
Our power source was basically a 9V battery to power the sensors and uC, and also a couple of 1.5V AA batteries (4 of them) in series to power the motor. But they drain real fast, so maybe you should get rechargable AA batteries.
Also, make sure you have these tools in hand with you: Multimeter (you can borrow from lab maybe), soldering gun, lots of solder flux, screwdriver, lots of jumper wires, wire cutter, pincer, small plier. Also get your hands on a prototyping board so you can test some circuits out.
Okay, thats it for now. Feel free to post again if you need more info. In the meantime, me and some friends plan to make a robot boat soon *grin*
28th October 2007, 01:18 AM
Line Follower Competition..I don't know how to start
. The rules and regulations of the contest can be found here 
and don't know what hardware is needed for that project besides the optical sensors (such as LDRs)and how to build the car in such way to achieve high speed
!!
Re: Line Follower Competition..I don't know how to start
Linear Mode
