Line-following and path-planning algorithms to navigate a robot around a track — first on infrared alone, then with vision added to distinguish friendlies from enemies.
The robot was tasked with making its way around the arena while avoiding obstacles. With vision added, it had to do the same while also detecting friendlies and enemies placed around the arena.
Infrared
The robot navigates the arena using only the IR sensor array and a front-facing ultrasonic sensor. A Propeller P2X8C4M64P was used here — a multicore chip running the line-following algorithm alongside the peripherals: the mini LCD, the ultrasonic sensor and the LEDs.
Infrared and vision
With vision, the robot navigates using the IR array and ultrasonic sensor while a camera detects friendly and enemy blocks around the arena. A Raspberry Pi was added alongside the Propeller: the Propeller kept the line-following algorithm, and the Pi handled the camera and block detection.