Dire Dawa Institute of Technology

Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering

Department of Industrial Control and Instrumentation Engineering
Line Follower Robot

Prepared by:
1. Alemu Asnake………………………………………….….0900481
2. Amanuel Bilelgne………………………………………….0900529
3. Amdetsion Tadele………………………………………….0900572
4. Eden Desta…………………………………………………0901663
5. Mulugeta Moges…………………………………………...0904120
 Abstract
Line Following robot is one of the most important aspects of robotics. A Line Following
Robot is an autonomous robot which is able to follow either a black line that is drawn on the
surface consisting of a contrasting color. It is designed to move automatically and follow the
line. The robot uses arrays of Infrared (IR) sensors to identify the line, thus assisting the robot
to stay on the track and ultrasonic sensor, thus assisting the robot to detect obstacles. The
array of three sensor makes its movement precise and flexible. The robot is driven by DC
gear motors to control the movement of the wheels. This project aims to implement the algorithm
and control the movement of the robot by proper tuning of the control parameters and thus
achieve better performance. In this arduino based line follower robot we used IR transmitters and
IR receivers also called photo diodes. They are used for sending and receiving light.IR transmits
infrared lights. When infrared rays fall on white surface, it’s reflected back and cached by photo
diodes which generates some voltage changes. When IR light falls on a black surface, light is
absorbed by the black surface and no rays are reflected back, thus photodiode does not receive
any light or rays. Here in this arduino line follower robot when sensor senses white surface the
arduino gets one as input and when senses black line arduino get zero as input. The whole
arduino line follower robot can be divided in to three sections: - Sensor section, Control section,
driver section.

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Design and Simulation of line follower robot 2014 E.C

Table of Contents
Abstract ............................................................................................................................................ i
List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ iii
1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY ........................................................................................... 1
1.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem ...................................................................................................... 2
1.3 Objective of the Thesis.......................................................................................................... 2
1.3.1 General objective ............................................................................................................ 2
1.3.2 Specific objective ........................................................................................................... 2
1.4 Significant of the Study ......................................................................................................... 2
1.5 Scope ..................................................................................................................................... 3
2. LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................................... 4
3. METHODOLOGY ..................................................................................................................... 6
3.1 Block Diagram ...................................................................................................................... 7
3.2 Block Diagram Description:- ................................................................................................ 7
4. Material Requirement ................................................................................................................. 9
4.1 Hard ware Components ......................................................................................................... 9
Arduino microcontroller:- ........................................................................................................... 9
4.2 Ultrasonic Sensor ................................................................................................................ 12
4.3 motor driver ......................................................................................................................... 12
4.3.1 Dc Gear motor:- ............................................................................................................ 12
4.3.2 Servo motors:- .............................................................................................................. 13
4.4 Software Tools .................................................................................................................... 13
Reference ...................................................................................................................................... 14

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Design and Simulation of line follower robot 2014 E.C

List of Figures

Figure 1 over all of the project ....................................................................................................... 6

Figure 2 Block diagram of the System ............................................................................................ 7
Figure 3 infrared sensor ................................................................................................................. 9
Figure 4 white surfaces reflect light and black obsorvers .............................................................. 9
Figure 5 description of various parts ........................................................................................... 10
Figure 6 forward movement.......................................................................................................... 10
Figure 7 turn right movement ....................................................................................................... 11
Figure 8 turn left movement ........................................................................................................ 11
Figure 9 ultrasonic sensor ............................................................................................................ 12
Figure 10 DC Motor ..................................................................................................................... 12

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 1. BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.1 Introduction
Line follower robot is a machine which follows a line either a black line or white line.
Basically there are two types of line follower robots: one is black line follower which follows
black line and second is white line follower which follows white line. Line follower actually
senses the line and run over it. Robotics is a new technology that largely used in manufacturing
field. New technology has found entrance to many industries. Besides that, robots are also
employed in the nuclear industry, civil engineering, marine work, ship building, and Agriculture
and security super vision. The line follower robot is a self-operating robot that detects and
follows a line that is drawn on the floor. It is a reprogrammable, multifunction, manipulator
designed for moving materials, tools, parts etc. through various programmed motions to perform
a variety of tasks. It is an automatic device that performs functions normally ascribed to humans
or a machine in the form of a human. Robot can replace human’s job because robots can perform
faster than humans. Robots need not to drink, to be paid or rest as compared to humans. They
can do repetitive work with high accuracy and will not stop or slow until the task is finished
while humans get bored. A line tracking robot is an autonomous robot which is capable of
following a black line drawn on the floor. It can sense a line and maneuver the robot to stay on
black line, while constantly correcting wrong moves using open loop system. Generally robots
have three main parts which include processor, sensor and motor control system. Robot sensors
represent eyes while actuators act as legs and controller acts as the brain of a human.

The most apparent reason that are associated in installing of robotic systems in industry are

 Saving of man power

 An ability to work in any hostile environment.
 To increase consistency & flexibility.
 To increase yields and reduced wastage.
 To deliver products from one manufacturing point to another point.
 Line tracking robot has applicability in industry as a part of manufacturing
process.

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Design and Simulation of line follower robot 2014 E.C

1.2 Statement of the Problem

The line follower robot is very sensitive and everything in the robot is perfect to do specific
work that we want. Nowadays in office most of the delivery jobs such as deliver books,
documents, letters or other things are done by human beings. This daily routine job is actually
tedious and time consuming. The line follower robot performs this type of work in effective
manner. At the same time it will reduce employee payment cost, time, and human power. It
also will increase the efficiency of delivery job because human normally affected by pressure
and other problems.

In the industry carriers are required to carry products from one manufacturing plant to
another which are usually in different buildings or separate blocks by picking and placing the
desired products.

1.3 Objective of the Thesis

1.3.1 General objective
The main objective of this project is to design and implement a microcontroller based black line
follower robot for multipurpose application by considering a suitable body and wheel.

1.3.2 Specific objective

 To design and develop an autonomous robot that follows a black line drawn on the floor
while smoothing the tracking motion by using microcontroller.
 To design prototype of the robot that can follow the line and can turn according to the
sensor signal of the black line with pick and place desired products.
 To write the code according to the sensor to sense the black line and send the signal to
the microcontroller.
 To implement robot design, this integrated with sensors through suitable load speed
calculation.

1.4 Significant of the Study

In the industry carriers are required to carry products from one manufacturing plant to
another which are usually in different buildings or separate blocks Conventionally,
carts or trucks were used with human drivers. Unreliability and inefficiency in this part
of the assembly line formed the weakest link. The project is to automate this sector,

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Design and Simulation of line follower robot 2014 E.C

using carts to follow a line instead of laying railway tracks which are both costly and
inconvenience.

1.5 Scope
This project can be used industrial automated equipment carriers, small house hold applications,
our guides in museums and other similar applications. Concept of working line follower is
related to light. We use here the behavior of light at black and white surface. When light fall on a
white surface it is almost full reflected and in case of black surface light is completely observed.

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Design and Simulation of line follower robot 2014 E.C

2. LITERATURE REVIEW
The related subject being evaluate here are based on knowledge and the information gather from
journals, articles, thesis, books, internet and other sources.Line following robot is a robot that
identifies the path and follows the path. The first step of the process is finding the path. For this
we used the track colored in black in a white background as the path and sensor for finding that
path. Sensors developed distinct resistance depending on the color which it senses. Arduino is
used as the microcontroller to control the system and linking the input and output. L293D motor
driver was used as the motor controller. The voltage regulator was used for regulating 5v which
is required for biasing the micro controller. Two DC motors are separately coupled for the
driving wheels for steering the line. [1]

A line tracking robot is an autonomous robot which is capable of following a black line drawn on
the floor. It can sense a line and maneuver the robot to stay on black line, while constantly
correcting wrong moves using open loop system. The line tracking robot will easily leave its
track from the black line drawn on the floor because it’s an open loop system. This problem will
make the motion of the robot to be unsmooth. Although line tracking robot can follow the black
line its motion still need to be improved. [2]

The line tracker robot basically use a cadmium sulphide (Cds) photocell sensor or known as light
dependent resistor (LDR) and the high intensity blue light emitting diode (LED) to illuminate the
area under the photo cell sensor to sense the black track line and the DC motor speed control
technique to navigate the black line track the easy method to navigate the black line is to turn on
and off the left or the right DC motor according to the sensor reading (black turn off and white
turn on). Human robot interaction is the study of interaction between human and robot, where
robot are treated as artificial agent with capacity of perception and action in the physical world.
Historically, their use has been generalized in factories. [3]

Our expected outcomes or results at the final stage of the project are the robot satisfies its
behavior i.e Multifunctional ,reprogrammable ,movable, automatic and also expected that the
robot do its task and as well as we want, that is the robot must track or follow the expected line
and the robot must pick and place some objects. Our expected outcomes or results at the final
stage of the project are the robot satisfies its behavior i.e. multifunctional, reprogrammable,

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Design and Simulation of line follower robot 2014 E.C

movable, automatic and also expected that he robot do its task and as well as we want, that is the
robot must track or follow the expected line and the robot must pick and place some objects.

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Design and Simulation of line follower robot 2014 E.C

3. METHODOLOGY
Research, pertaining to line follower robot was done after the research we formulated a block
diagram according to our scope of understanding ,as far as the components go ,then all the
proper analysis were done then we checked our analysis by means of software called
PROTEUS.

 Data collection: Collect necessary data through literature review on existing autonomous
line tracking robots, Arduino microcontroller, line sensor, driven motor and circuit design
 Design electronics and mechanical system: Create a circuit diagram for electronics part
and design robot structure.
 Integration: Build a complete set of autonomous robot by integrates the mechanical
structure and electronics device
 Programming and Testing: Build the complete set of program for Arduino
microcontroller and run the testing for the complete autonomous robot.

General flow of methodology:-

Problem identification

Literature review

Material selection and analysis

System modeling and design

Software simulation

Progress presentation

Implementation
Submission
Figure 1 over view of the project

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Design and Simulation of line follower robot 2014 E.C

3.1 Block Diagram

ULTRASONIC
SENSOR

MOTOR

IR SENSOR
ARDUINO UNO
L293D(MOTOR DRIVER)

IR SENSOR

MOTOR

ULTRASONIC
SENSOR

Figure 2 Block diagram of the System

3.2 Block Diagram Description:-

The block diagram consists of input section, controlling, driving and output section. The input
section contains three infrared sensors (left sensor, middle sensor and right sensor) and ultrasonic
sensor to detect an obstacle. These sensors are used to detector track the line and help to move
the robot at that particular line path. These sensors are input to the arduino micro controller by
detecting the line The controlling and driving parts are arduino micro controller and motor driver
respectively. The arduino micro controller gets input from sensors and give outputs to motor
driver to drive the motor. These arduino microcontroller is also control pick and place function
of the robot. The output section contains two motors for robot movement in a line and other
actuators that performs link movement at an angle using servo or stepper motor.

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Design and Simulation of line follower robot 2014 E.C

start


Ultrasonic sensor Yes

detect obstacle?

No

Do both sensor see Yes

bl? only left sensor Go forward

No

Does see black? Turn left

Yes

No

Does only right

sensor? Yes Turn right

No

stop

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Design and Simulation of line follower robot 2014 E.C

4. Material Requirement
4.1 Hard ware Components
Arduino microcontroller:-
The arduino microcontroller is the main control system in the project. That controls the
motion of each motor through driver for dc motor and servomotor for line tracking and pick
and place operation. The microcontroller gets input from sensors and gives output based on
the program

Infrared sensor:

Figure 3 infrared sensor

This infrared sensors used to detect the. It has transmitter and receiver as shown the figure
bellow.

Figure 4 white surfaces reflect light and black observers

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Design and Simulation of line follower robot 2014 E.C

There are three strategic condition of the infrared sensor how it detects the targeted line.

 Straight direction
 Left curve
 Right curve

Figure 5: description of various parts

Straight direction

We can expect our robot to move in street direction when the middle sensor response is low
and the remaining two sensors response is high. i.e., according to our arrangement the middle
sensor will always be on the line and as the line is black in color it will not reflect the emitted
radiation back and the response of the sensor will be low and the response of the remaining
two sensors will be high as they will be on the bright surface.

Figure 6 forward movement

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Design and Simulation of line follower robot 2014 E.C

Right curve

When a right curve is found on the line the responses will change i.e. the response of
the first sensor which is to the right will become low as that sensor will be facing the
black line and the remaining sensors response will be high. When this data is achieved,
the control of the wheels is changed i.e. the right wheel is held constant and the left
wheel is made to move freely until the response from the middle sensor becomes low.
Then the same process repeats again.

Figure 7 turn right movement

Left curve

When a left curve is found on the line the response of the left most sensor will be changed from
high to low as the sensor will now face the black or the dark surface. Then the control of the
wheel changes i.e. by holding the left wheel constant and allowing the right wheel to move freely
until the right sensor changes its response from high to low.

Figure 8 turn left movement

The same process continues for all the turns and the robot moves continuously except all
robot. Wheels will be out of the black surface or detect obstacle.
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Design and Simulation of line follower robot 2014 E.C

4.2 Ultrasonic Sensor

This sensor is used for detecting obstacle that is found on the condition when the robot is
tracking a line.

Figure 9 ultrasonic sensor

4.3 motor driver

Motor drivers taking the input signals from microcontroller and generate corresponding output
for motor .It is used for driving both dc motor and servomotor as the arduino microcontroller
ordered in the program.

4.3.1 Dc Gear motor:-

The two types of motors that we are likely to use in robotic adventure are DC motors and RC
servo motors. It is used to drive/move robot by tracking/detecting a line at specified starting
and ending point of a line.

Figure 10 DC Motor

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Design and Simulation of line follower robot 2014 E.C

4.3.2 Servo motors:-

It is used for the movement of links/arms at a specified joint by a certain angle in the operation
of pick and places the industrial products

4.4 Software Tools

Proteus software: Proteus design suite is an Electronic Design Automation (EDA) tool
including schematic capture, simulation and PCB designing and layout modules. The software
runs on windows operating system and is available in English and other many languages. The
microcontroller simulation in proteus works by applying either a hex file or a debug file to the
microcontroller part on the schematic. It is then connected to it. This enables its usage in a board
spectrum of thesis prototyping in areas such as motor control, temperature control and user
interface design. It also finds use in general applications and since no hardware is required. It is
convenient to use as training or teaching tool.

Arduino IDE: Software programs, called sketches (Arduino program code), are created on a
computer using the Arduino integrated development environment (IDE). The IDE enables us to
write and edit code and convert this code into instructions that Arduino hardware understands.
The IDE also transfers those instructions to the Arduino board (a process called uploading).
Arduino programs may be written in any programming language with a compiler that produces
binary machine code. Atmel provides a development environment for their microcontrollers,
AVR Studio and the newer Atmel Studio.

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Design and Simulation of line follower robot 2014 E.C

Reference
[1]. Sensor Based Black Line Follower Robot:-This paper was introduced by,
Prananjali Koppad Vishnu Agarwal. In this robot uses IR sensor to follow certain black
line
[2]. Implementing a Line Tracing Robot as an effective Sensor and Closed Loop
system:-This paper is proposed by, S. Akash, Bibek Kabi , Mr. S.Karthick. This study
aims to investigate “the use of computer controlled line follower robots in public
transport”
[3]. Design and Fabrication of Line Follower Robot:- This paper was proposed by, M.
S.Islam & M. A. Rahman. In this a 700gm weight of a 9W LDR sensor based line
follower robot which always directs along the black mark on the white surface.
[4]. An intelligent line-following robot project for introductory robot courses:- This
paper is proposed by, Juing-Huei Su, ChyiShyong Lee,et-al. The line-following robot
devised In this article for educational purposes includes only accurate line detection
algorithms with analog outputs of reflective optical sensors.
[5].line follower robot / controlled robot, http://www.robokits.co.in and
http://www.robokitsworld.com Paper

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