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in

AUTONOMOUS ROBOTICS

Components

Locomotion System
Power Supply
Sensors
Microcontrollers
Motor Driver
Speed Control
Line Follower-Algorithm

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LOCOMOTION SYSTEM
DIFFERENTIAL
DRIVE
A differential drive is
the most basic drive,
which consists of two
sets of wheels that can
be driven
independently.
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To turn the vehicle (or robot) LEFT or RIGHT, wheels are

rotated at "different" speeds or in different directions.

MOTION

LEFT WHEEL

RIGHT WHEEL

Forward
Backward
Left Turn
Right Turn

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Drives
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Power Supply
Our power supply consists of the rectifier circuit and
the transformer.
A rectifier is an electrical device that
converts alternating current (AC), current that
periodically reverses direction, to direct
current (DC), current that flows in only one direction.

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Power Supply

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The Rectifier Circuit

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Sensor Components

LED-LDR Circuit
Comparator Circuit

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LED-LDR
A line follower is basically a robot or a
machine that takes external inputs
(sensory feeds) and decides whether it
is on the path or off it.
Let us consider that we are trying to
follow a certain white line on a black
background.

How would the bot decide whether

it is on the white line?.
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LED - LDR
LED LDR sensors come into the picture here. For
detecting a white line on a black surface the bot
must be able to distinguish between them.
In an electric circuit distinguishing a difference in
any field is achieved using difference in voltages.
The sensors basically provide this voltage difference.
Here we take the example of a differential drive with
a LED-LDR sensor array for line following.
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LED-LDR
LED

LDR

and

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LED-LDR
LED-LDR sensor unit is used for detecting surfaces that
reflect light at intensity different from the adjoining
surfaces.
**LED (Light Emitting Diode) : Small elongated bulb-like
object that emits light. Available commonly in red, green,
white etc.
**LDR (Light Dependent Resistor) : Small resistor, resistance
depending (non-linear) upon the intensity of incident light
The resistance usually varies in the range of ~10k ohms.
Hence a 10k ohm resistance should be used in series with a
LDR.
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Comparator

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LM339 Pin Diagram

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Sensor Interfacing

Light Sensing Module using LED-LDR combination. As high intensity of light falls on the LDR,
its resistance drops and the potential at -ve terminal of comparator increases. If this potential
is less than that at the +ve terminal, a high signal is obtained as output.
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Calibration
Resistance of an LDR changes depending on the intensity of light that is
incident on it.
Light (from LED) reflected from white surface -> brighter (i.e. more intense)
Light reflected from the black surface ->Less intense
Two different voltages achieved, thus separating white from black.
Using these two voltages a mean voltage is decided which is used as the
reference voltage. This is termed as calibration.
In comparator circuit,
Voltage higher than reference -> HIGH
Voltage lower than reference -> LOW
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Final Circuit

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Final Circuit

Circuit has 4 sensors

Each is connected to a comparator of the IC
Each should have its own potentiometer for
thresholding

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The Microcontroller

Brain of the autonomous robot

Has its own microprocessor, RAM and static flash
storage
ATMEGA 16 [used here]: 16MHz processor, 1KB
internal SRAM and 16KB of in-programmable
memory
40 pins-8 are reserved for various functions; other
32 pins are general purpose pins which may be
used for general input and output.

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Pin Configuration

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Pin Configuration-Contd.

Pins operate in highs and lows. +5 volt is termed as high;

ground potential is low.

Code designates pins as input pins or output pins.

Input Pins: Used to take input from surroundings, say, by
hooking up with the output of a sensor
Output Pins: Used to control external actuators such as motors
(via a motor driver).

ATMEGA 16 comes with several advanced features like timers,

interrupts and analog to digital converters.

Code is burnt onto microcontroller using a programmer.

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Motor Drivers:H Bridge

It is an electronic circuit which enables a voltage to

be applied across a load in either direction.
It allows a circuit full control over a standard
electric DC motor. With an H-bridge, a
microcontroller, logic chip, or remote control can
electronically command the motor to go forward,
reverse, brake, and coast.

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Motor Drivers : H Bridge (Contd)

H-bridges are available as integrated circuits, or

can be built from discrete components.

The term "H-bridge" derived from the typical

graphical representation of such a circuit, which is
built with four switches, either solid-state (eg,
L293/ L298) or mechanical (eg, relays).

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S1
1
0
0
0
1

S2
0
1
0
1
0

S3
0
1
0
0
1

S4
1
0
0
1
0

Result
Motor rotates in one direction
Motor rotates in opposite direction
Motor free runs (coasts)
Motor brakes
Motor brakes

To power the motor, you turn on two switches

that are diagonally opposed.

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DC Motor Direction Control

H Bridge Circuit Diagram

VCC

S1
S3

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S2

S4

H Bridge Working

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Need of Motor Driver IC

The current provided by the MCU is of the order of 5mA and that required
by a motor is ~500mA. Hence, motor cant be controlled directly by MCU
and we need an interface between the MCU and the motor.

A Motor Driver IC like L293D or L298 is used for this purpose which has
two H-bridge drivers. Hence, each IC can drive two motors

Note that a motor driver does not amplify the current; it only acts as a
switch (An H bridge is nothing but 4 switches).

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L293D

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Motor Driver

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L293D : Motor Driver (Contd)

Drivers are enabled in pairs, with drivers 1 and 2 being enabled by the
Enable pin. When an enable input is high (logic 1 or +5V), the associated
drivers are enabled and their outputs are active and in phase with their
inputs.

When the enable pin is low, the output is neither high nor low
(disconnected), irrespective of the input.

Direction of the motor is controlled by asserting one of the inputs to

motor to be high (logic 1) and the other to be low (logic 0).

To move the motor in opposite direction just interchange the logic applied
to the two inputs of the motors.

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L239D : Motor Driver (Contd)

Asserting both inputs to logic high or logic low will

stop the motor.

Difference between L293NE and L293D: Output

current per channel = 1A for L293 and 600mA for
L293D.

Vs is used to power the motors while Vss powers the

L293NE.

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Speed Control:

To control motor speed we can use pulse width modulation

(PWM), applied to the enable pins of L293 driver.

PWM is the scheme in which the duty cycle of a square wave

output from the microcontroller is varied to provide a varying
average DC output.

What actually happens by applying a PWM pulse is that the motor

is switched ON and OFF at a given frequency. In this way, the
motor reacts to the time average of the power supply

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Speed Control

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An Example - Line Follower

A line follower is a robot
capable of tracking a line
drawn on a surface
Optical sensors capture the
line position at the front end of
the robot
The robot is steered to keep it
always over the line
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Block Layout of Line Follower

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Line Following

How many LED-LDR pairs are required to create an

autonomous line following robot?

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1 Sensor (The Edge Finder)

Only 1 sensor is needed to follow a line. It actually

follows one edge of the line, continually sensing
the transition from dark to light. Assuming a 2
motor drive system, one motor is activated when
the line is seen, the other is activated when the
line is not seen.

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The Edge Finder

This works fine at slower speeds but

becomes unusable as the bot goes faster -If
the sensor crosses the other side of the line,
it will may head back in the opposite
direction or if it loses the line, it may spin in
circles forever.

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Line Following with two LED LDR pairs

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Algorithm : 2 Sensors
There is a minimum of two sensors required for this task, one for detecting
each edge of the line. If the LED LDR sensor gives a high when above the floor
and a low when above the ridge, then the simple algorithm for line following
will be :

Left Sensor

Right Sensor

Left Motor

Right Motor

1
0
1

1
1
0

1
0
1

1
1
0

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