Introduction

Robotics Challenge

Team 56
• Johnson Alex (13345086)
• Abdul-Aziz Alharbi(13102042)
• Eniola Kasim (13414852)
• Darren King (13397861)
• Contact details:
dking949@gmail.com
• The main challenge for this part of the
Engineering Design module is to programme a
Robot(Pololu 3pi) to follow a predefined course
• Each group had to code the robot to perform
three tasks
• It had to follow a light source, then follow a black
line and finally balance itself on a seesaw
• The Pololu 3pi was programmed using Arduino
software and the C programming language
 Responsibilities

• Each member had a different responsibility.

• Abdul and Johnson had the job of soldering
the components onto the circuit board and
assigning each members with parts of the
report writing
• Eniola and Darren had the main task of
programming the robot to make sure it
performed well on the testing day.
This project had two major tasks:

1.Soldering
2.Programming
 Soldering
The circuit board consisted of:

1. resistor

2. Light dependent resistors (LDR).

3. wires.

4.accelerometer.
 Main Objectives
1. Programme the robot so it would be able to follow the
lights, follow the black line and balance itself on a
seesaw as shown in the diagram.

Climb seesaw &

balance for
5 seconds 3
1
5
4
Line Following
start to finish
Challenges Encountered
 Thresholding

• Testing difficult as lighting was never exactly the same

• If voltage never went below threshold the robot would just
spin in circles
• Used to tell robot when to turn and when to drive towards
light
• This problem was solved by finding the optimal threshold
 Counters
• Counters used to break out of loops
• Robot needed a counter to stop light follow and begin line
follow
• When we used counters the robot got stuck in the infinite
loop that was originally supposed to turn robot
• Resulted in robot spinning constantly
• We were unable to solve this problem
 Line follower

• Robot followed line but at exceptionally slow speed

• Unsuitable for testing due to 2 minute time limit
• Tried to edit existing sample line follower in Arduino library
• More successful
• Unable to programme line follower in with rest of code
• No solution found
 The Three Main Points
So in conclusion we have discussed the
following:
1) The Objective
2) Our Method of Approach
3) The Challenges We Encountered
 The Objective

• Programme the Pololu 3pi Robot

• Detect and drive towards 3 different light sources
and switch them off
• Follow the black line outlined on the obstacle
course
• Balance the robot on a seesaw
 Our Method of Approach

• We decided to tackle each aspect of the course individually.

• Three separate pieces of code were written.
• We tested each piece of code individually to make sure it
worked.
• Our final program consisted of these individual pieces of
code combined.
 Problems Encountered
• In order to get the robot to move in the
obstacle course we had to define thresholds.
• Using the correct threshold proved to be
difficult as they changed with the robots
external environment.
• The programme did not exit FOR loops
• The Line Following code proved to be
unsuccessful.
 Summary

• We managed to successfully write code for

the light following and balance aspect of the
obstacle course

• However, the code we wrote for the Line

Follow was unsuccessful.
 Recommendations for Future Work

• Always break down the code into smaller problems

• Deal with these one by one
• Make use of the LCD screen to display values read
in from the robot’s external environment
• Practice makes perfect – go through examples
• Never hesitate to ask for help or look-up
information