FollowBot

by Scott Preston - 2005-06-30 18:08:24

This is my first robot. It cost less than $10 and took me a week-end to get it working.

Detailed Specifications

Robot Name:	FollowBot
Date Built:	October, 1998
Chassis:	A Radio Shack $5.00 remote control car. Duct Tape. Electrical Tape.
Power:	3 separate power sources (batteries). I just wanted it to do a few things. So I have 1.5V for the IR LED, 1.5V for the motor, and 3V for the detector circuit and relay. I am sure this circuit could have been designed better, but it was my first one, so don't hold that against me
Movement:	1 motor & gear from car.
Sensors:	1 Hi-Output IR LED's from Radio Shack and 1 Phototransistor.
CPU/OS:	None.
Other Info:	Reactive. See something remove power from the motor. I used a white sheet of paper since it provided the best reflective material for the IR LED.

FollowBot does 1 thing. It follows a piece of paper in a line until it runs into the paper. That's it. It consist of:

Remote Control Car
Small circuit (IR LED, IR Phototransistor, Relay)
3 Batteries for power

This was my first robot ever. (if you can call it that) Yes, it looks like a wreck. It looks like I literally ripped apart the car ($5.00) from Radio Shack and then put it together with duct tape.

I wanted to add a sensor to the robot so I created a primitive IR detection system that operates at about 5 inches. Because it is not modulated it is affected by strong light sources. This system consist of a IR LED and an IR photo transistor. I connected the two to a relay that either turned on the power or off the power to the motors.

Flickr Photos (Beta)

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