Evolving a Line Following Robot to use in shopping centers for entertainment

Abstract

In this work the design of a Line Following Robot which is commonly used to carry children through shopping malls entertainment place is discussed as a new commercial product in this field. The robot has five different speed levels, and is able to follow 4.8cm wide black line carrying nominally 400kg load. The robot can be operated in two control mode; Line Following Mode and Service Mode. In the Line-Following Mode it follows the path of the black line in a suitable ground, while in the Manual Mode, it can be moved manually forwards, backwards, left and right free from the black lined path by a remote controller. Robot is operated using two permanent magnet DC motors on left and right sides. Forward and backward movement, or left and right side motors are controlled by two H-Bridge circuits. The batteries can be charged by AC supply from an external source or by DC supply from a solar panel.

Vision based square matrix design and detection for robotic routing

“…Reference [3] developed a robot for use in a shopping mall as entertainment for children. The project involves utilizing black lines as guided paths with line sensors to carry the load along the line.…”

“…The issues related to this method include the disability of the system to react to missing lines in the case of a newly constructed road without lines. Similarly as discussed in [3] and [5], a webcam is used to provide vision to the robot where the object of interest is a black line and light fixtures respectively. [6] demonstrates the steps in processing the images taken from the camera on the robot and the calculations involved to enable line tracing.…”

Design of a Mobile Robot for Air Ducts Exploration

“…The advantages of tethering sometimes outweigh the inherent limitation of bounded coverage, as seen in [16]. Similar approaches use line following algorithms where the robot is equipped with an array of infrared sensors that center the robot's motion with respect to a line drawn on the floor of the environment [17]. This method requires an existing line to be drawn across the entire exploration space, limiting the flexibility of the approach.…”

Input Based Multiple Destination, Multiple Lines Following Robot with Obstacle Bypassing

“…Colak et al, [5] has designed a line following robot which uses 4.8 cm wide black line as a track upon any surface to carry a load of maximum up to 400 kg. It also involves external control through a remote control device [5]. Line follower robots are gaining widespread attention for diverse applications such as, in industries where automation in transportation is required, in offices to automate the movement of files among offices.…”

“…distance sensor for balancing and addressing the inclination problem [4]. Colak et al, [5] has designed a line following robot which uses 4.8 cm wide black line as a track upon any surface to carry a load of maximum up to 400 kg. It also involves external control through a remote control device [5].…”