Hey guys, just need some help with programming my first robot. The goal of the bot is for it to follow heat. I have got the PIR sensor to detect the heat but am a little lost on how to program the input of the PIR and the outputs of the Servos. Basically, I need to know what commands to use so that if I have a HIGH from the PIR I can get the wheels to turn in a way that follows the heat. Also, I have seen things that say the servo motors can only turn 180 degrees, does this mean that they cannot be used to turn wheels?
There are a few tricks to make a robot using PIR sensors. The PIR sensors need to be still a few seconds for the sensors to work properly. PIR sensors have a wide area for detection, so locating the direction of the target is difficult.
I made a robot like this. I used 3 PIR sensors in a 360 degree array, it could detect movement in 6 zones. It sits still when detecting. When it detects a target, it turns and moves to the target. Here is a video:
If you notice, the heat source needs to be moving for the PIR to make a detection. When I was testing this robot, my dog quickly learned to lay still and don't move so the robot wouldn't bother him In this video, I got him distracted with his food.
I had the entire build on MAKE web site, pictures and instructions, but about a week later they closed the web site. You can download the sketch here:
I hope this helps,
Dave
Edit --- I added the wiring diagram to the attachment.
Yeah, this will help. Not sure if I will be able to achieve my original goal, but I will make it work. I wanted my bot to follow a person. I was going to add a little board so it could carry around stuff like food or other things like that, kind of like an assistant. Is this possible with one PIR sensor or is it possible at all with these kind of sensors? If not, what can I do to make it work?
In this video, I got him distracted with his food.