Line-Following Robot

Hello everyone,

Today I’m bringing you all a project I had to do in the second semester of 10th grade in my technology class.

The idea was to develop a robot able to follow a black line in a white background. I developed a circuit which used two optocouplers which were situated at both sides of the line, so if the line turned, one of the optocouplers would receive black instead of white, stopping the electric engine to which it was associated.

So the general circuit was made out of two almost identical circuits, one for each pair of optocoupler-e.engine. In each of these cirucits, the optocoupler is connected to a potentiometer and a LED (just to visualize which engine is working at every moment) and a geared motor. In the back of the robot a idler wheel is used to enable it to turn. All the circuit works in 4.5 Volts.

You can see a schematic of the circuit here,  and the Bill of Material here.

I also leave you some pics and videos to show all the mechanism more clearly :).

Mechanical Lift

Hello everyone,
Today I’m gonna show you a project I did when I was in 9th grade.

It’s a lift powered by a electric engine connected to a pulley in whose axis is a threaded rod. So the threaded rod spins and the “lift” is attached to a nut, making it possible to go both up and down.

To change the spinning direction of the engine a manual commuter is used. In the top part 4 LEDs make an arrow that shows if the lift is going up or down.

Additionally, there are two switches at both ends of the way that the lift follows, stopping it when it has reached any of them. Here is a huge gallery of picks and a some videos to show it more clearly.