Robotics 101 The Longest Line

In this session you will improve your line following robot and attempt to navigate the more difficult parts of the course. You will then compete against other teams to get as far around the track in as little time as possible. You will learn the principle of PID (proportional-integral-derivative) and its use in line following.

Lesson Summary

If in doubt or unfamiliar with anything, approach our eager and friendly instructors! They'll love to help you understand!

Preparation for this lesson:

• Have a completed and functional robot.
• Be competent at programming and using the mbed compiler.
• Understand how to use LDR's.

By the end of this lesson:

• Programmed your robot to follow a simple line course.
• Understand the principles of PID.
• Please complete the feedback form to let us know how you think about this session.
• Go through this online quiz to test what you have learnt throughout the first 6 sessions. There will be prizes for the 3 highest scores!

Challenge

Points will be awarded for the fastest circuit times around the track.

Lesson Material

Tutorials

These are written tutorials that we highly recommend you check out before the session.

• Line Sensor Bar - Explains possible methods of creating a line sensor bar
• Line Following Robot - Helps program a line following robot
• PID - introduction to the more advanced idea of PID and its use in line following

Video Tutorials

The following is a list of video tutorials that will help explain some of the new concepts you will face in the robotics course.

• Line-following Robot and Breadboard intro - demonstrates basics of a robot for line following
• Sensor Unit and Sensor Bar - explains a possible method of creating a sensor bar

Other Material

We recommend that if you have time, you should look through these materials to gain further understanding before the hands-on session.

• Wikipedia PID - Wikipedia page on PID control.