Design and Construction of a Light Tracking Robot

In today's era of technological advancements, robots play a pivotal role in various fields, ranging from industrial automation to healthcare and beyond. Among the myriad applications of robotics, the development of autonomous systems capable of tracking and following objects has garnered significant interest due to its potential in diverse domains such as surveillance, agriculture, and logistics. Apart from selecting the most suitable sensor for a light tracking robot, the light sensing distance and range of the chosen were tested. To investigate the different light-tracking possibilities and the accuracy of the demonstrator, the vehicle was placed in an open indoor space with colored luminous obstacles. The materials used include the software and hardware components. The hardware components include Arduino Uno, gear motor, LDR sensors, chassis, L293D motor driver and batteries (Hardware components). While the Arduino IDE was used for software programming the microcontroller. Two tests were carryout to evaluate the performance of a light-tracking robot using a Smartphone as a light source and door as light source. Power consumption was evaluated, revealing that most components consumed small power, except for the geared motors, which drew significantly more power. To power the robot, three 3.7V, 8800mAh Li-ion batteries were connected in series, providing a total of 11.1V and 8800mAh of capacity. This configuration allowed the robot to operate for over two hours. Testing results indicated that the robot performed reliably under different environmental conditions, effectively tracking a designated light source with minimal deviation. The potential applications of light tracking robots are diverse, including search and rescue operations, surveillance, and environmental monitoring. Further development and refinement of these systems could lead to significant advancements in various fields.