We are making line following robots.
The idea is we have a black line on a white background and our robots simply has to
do a lapÉwellÉmultiple laps around the line.
ItÕs actually quite a challenge to get the robot to not overshoot the end of the line.
And thereÕs quite a bit of troubleshooting required.
My robot uses three sensors. They have an infrared LED and then a sensor that
detects how much of that infrared light is being reflected back.
So when the robot sees the line on this side, it steers away from the line to keep the
robot centered over the line in a ÔZÕ pattern, which allows it to follow the track.
When the robot senses the line is perfectly centered under the sensors, the robot
can go forward at full speed, rather then just slowly in the corners.
Well I enjoyed a previous career in IT, and I kindaÕ got bored, ran out of things to
learn and I wanted to do something cool so I went to Conestoga for robotics.
I figured there arenÕt going to be LESS robots in the future.
Well I met Conestoga students working out in the field and they were doing some
amazing automation projects for NorthwestTel in the Yukon.
They have some co-ops up there and I was impressed with the things they were
doing so I wanted to try it too.
Well, there are actually a lot of places to go. I had a co-op job over the last summer
with the University of Waterloo in an electric car research lab.
I got to spend time hooking up sensors to electric test vehicles. I connected lasers
pointing at the ground to the four corners of the car to detect the roll and pitch of
the vehicle as we took it through test maneuvers. It was accurate within a milimetre.
And the skills I learned at Conestoga really helped me there.
I love the Ôhands-onÕ work with robots. We have a robotics lab here where there are
5 or 6 different arms and work cells that you get to program and optimize and I find
thatÕs a lot of fun.
I have always loved programming, so this program is great for me.
