a robot that follows me

PIR sensors are what are usually used for detecting/tracking warm-bodied lifeforms.
Do a search at http://images.google.com/ for "PIR Sensors", and you will see tons of
them as used in robots.

About the first robot to use this idea was Genghis, but you can probably get by with
fewer sensors.

http://www.ai.mit.edu/projects/genghis/genghis.html