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your robot sensors: light sensors (eyes), touch and pressure sensors (hands), chemical

sensors (nose), hearing and sonar sensors (ears), and taste sensors (tongue) will give your

robot awareness of its environment.

Movement A robot needs to be able to move around its environment. Whether rolling on

wheels, walking on legs or propelling by thrusters a robot needs to be able to move. To

count as a robot the whole robot moves, either like the Sojourner or just parts of the robot

moves, like the Canada Arm.

Energy A robot needs to be able to power itself. A robot might be solar powered,

electrically powered, battery powered. The way your robot gets its energy will depend on

what your robot needs to do.

Intelligence A robot needs some kind of "smarts." This is where programming enters the

pictures. A programmer is the person who gives the robot its 'smarts.' The robot will have

to have some way to receive the program so that it knows what it is to do.

So what is a robot?

Well it is a system that contains sensors, control systems, manipulators, power supplies

and software all working together to perform a task. Designing, building, programming

and testing a robots is a combination of physics, mechanical engineering, electrical

engineering, structural engineering, mathematics and computing. In some cases biology,

medicine, chemistry might also be involved. A study of robotics means that students are

actively engaged with all of these disciplines in a deeply problem-posing problem-

solving environment.

What is a line follower?

Line follower is a machine that can follow a path. The path can be visible like a black

line on a white surface (or vice-versa) or it can be invisible like a magnetic field.

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Why build a line follower?

Sensing a line and maneuvering the robot to stay on course, while constantly correctingwrong moves using feedback mechanism forms a simple yet effective closed loop

system. As a programmer you get an opportunity to teach the robot how to follow the

line thus giving it a human-like property of responding to stimuli.

Practical applications of a line follower: Automated cars running on roads with

embedded magnets; guidance system for industrial robots moving on shop floor etc.

EMBEDDED SYSTEMS:

An embedded system is a combination of software and hardware to perform a

dedicated task.

Some of the main devices used in embedded products are Microprocessors and

Microcontrollers.

Microprocessors are commonly referred to as general purpose processors as they

simply accept the inputs, process it and give the output.

In contrast, a microcontroller not only accepts the data as inputs but also

manipulates it, interfaces the data with various devices, controls the data and thus finally

gives the result.

All these tasks are possible with the microcontroller because the microcontroller has a

CPU in addition to a fixed amount of RAM, ROM, I/O ports and timer all on a single

chip. This fixed amount of RAM, ROM and number of I/O ports in microcontroller

makes them ideal for many applications where cost and space are critical.

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Block Diagram

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Crystal

Reset

circuit

Photo Sensor

Array

OP-Amp

H-Bridge

Left

Motor

Right

Motor

AT89C2051Micro controller

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