gps, line follower

hi there,

doing project, trying to design line following robot. i am thinking of using 5 QRD1114 optical senors attached to ATMega8L microcontroller, which is attached to L293D motor driver H-bridge to two motors,which i would just buy with double gearbox to get variable speed. was thinking of using 12v battery, could someone please give me info on power supply to use. i am not actualy building this robot, i am seeing if it is visible. i was also looking into the idea of maybe using some type of gps, in which i could attach uM-FPU V3.1 floating proccesor chip to the microcontroller and to the GPS reciever and serial LCD. would also use RS-232 convertor from gps to chip.
i would appreciate any helpful info or suggestions, i have recieved all this info from a number of different robot and internet site.

thanks for your time

You don't need GPS for line following.

i know you don't need gps for line follower, but im trying to design line follower that will go for specific distance and variable speed. for the distance side was thinking of using gps reciever. could that work?

grant10 said:

i know you don't need gps for line follower, but im trying to design line follower that will go for specific distance and variable speed. for the distance side was thinking of using gps reciever. could that work?

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Depends how accurate you need it to be?.

would want it to be the most accurate i could get it, would gps receiver be the best option for this

(edit - talking about the power supply here) Guess it depends on the stall current of the motors and their rated voltage.. The rest of the circuit should be under 100mA..

btw, level shifting from the gps unit is generally not needed. 3.3V is more than enough to register a logic high for most devices. Level shifting down can be done with 2 resistors in series (google voltage divider)

grant10 said:

would want it to be the most accurate i could get it, would gps receiver be the best option for this

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'Most accurate' isn't a very useful term, but GPS is accurate to metres, not centimetres.

sorry, didnt mean to be vague. but what i am trying to design is a line following robot that might be able to pace set around an athletic running track, so for the design it would be ideal if the session could be programmed. such as 400metres around the track. i am not building this, i am just seeing if it is visible and how it could be done.

thanks

I am fairly sure it would be visible.

Sorry I know that doesn't help you much with your homework.