Development of a simple line-follower robot with constant acceleration motion

Abstract

A simple line-follower robot is an automated guided vehicle that senses the black line on a white surface using infrared (IR) sensors and then sends the signal to the Arduino Nano microcontroller. It drives two simple DC motors attached with two wheels used to move the robot’s direction that is left, right, and forward according to the sensor’s output, and it can control the speed of DC motors from the L298N driver circuit. This research aims to develop a simple line-follower robot with constant acceleration motion as an educational tool. The design process would allow the robot to detect white and black surfaces, travel along a 3 m straight line with a constant acceleration, and permit acceleration with a smartphone sensor by the Phyphox application. The robot is equipped with the acceleration sensor of a smartphone that can collect acceleration data. The data are then graphed and analyzed using the Phyphox application in real-time. The robot is designed to help students change acceleration by adjusting the motor’s output pulse width modulation (PWM) signal from 0 to 255. The signal was set at 230, a value that can cause the robot to move with constant acceleration. The robot’s average acceleration is 0.65 m/s2. This project can help students to illustrate the acceleration concept in the form of a graph together with robot motion.