benjamins mt druitt tafe robot
history
this project started with the base and the design of using tracks, after a bit of thought it was changed conventional wheels and a front castor to make it faster and more nimble.
sensing
originaly i was going to use infrared but then dicided on using modulated IR for better range and less chance of outside interference. The sensor were bought from dicksmith but there range was poor and the minimum voltage valve was 4.2V making them a poor choice and difficult to work with. These were chnaged to farnell items which had a much greater sensing range for same current (amps) value. The farnell sensors also worked well below 4v.
Programming
The original program was made just to drive straight and turn depending on walls , this prceded to be very difficult to control to keep in a straight line and once of course would need help. alot of time was spent fine tuning and if there was voltage interference the program wouldn't work preperly.
The choice was made to change the program to follow the wall so it tried to keep in sight with the wall this works much better as it doesnt matter how straight it is.
sensing
originaly i was going to use infrared but then dicided on using modulated IR for better range and less chance of outside interference. The sensor were bought from dicksmith but there range was poor and the minimum voltage valve was 4.2V making them a poor choice and difficult to work with. These were chnaged to farnell items which had a much greater sensing range for same current (amps) value. The farnell sensors also worked well below 4v.
Programming
The original program was made just to drive straight and turn depending on walls , this prceded to be very difficult to control to keep in a straight line and once of course would need help. alot of time was spent fine tuning and if there was voltage interference the program wouldn't work preperly.
The choice was made to change the program to follow the wall so it tried to keep in sight with the wall this works much better as it doesnt matter how straight it is.
