Finding a black dot with IR sensor

Other Hardware Sensors
1

Hey everyone, for a school project I have to build a autonomous car which is able to find a black dot on a white road. So my thought was to use an infrared sensor. But how do I do this?

I have no idea about the code nor the circuit

Please help me ^^

2

what are your high level thoughts? start decomposing the pb in smaller parts

3

The thing the sensor has to do:

Just scan the ground beneath the car, all white.
When the sensor finds the black circle, in the middle of the road, The has to be made stop and after a couple of seconds, go back on track again, from that point the IR sensor is not longer needed.

So it needs to find the circle then make the car stop.

4

Good so you know you need as part of the loop

  • something that gets the car moving
  • something that check a color sensor
  • make decision about the movement based on the sensor reading.

Code you can start working on:

  • write a small program driving a color sensor which prints something when the color under the sensors changes to black. no need to attach the sensor to a robot, just have a piece of white paper with a black dot and move the paper underneath the sensor and see if that works fine.

  • write a small program that gets your car robot moving straight, turn right, turn left and stop.

Unanswered Questions=

  • what does the field you need to explore look like? straight road (like a line) or an area? is it flat, bumpy? how do you handle scanning the full terrain?