Hello everyone, this is my first post in this forum.
I am very new to the Arduino, and I have a very tiny bit of programming knowledge, but I would like to build a robot that would follow people around a small enclosed space of 3m by 3m for a school project.
I would like to know if it would be necessary to get a motor shield to control the motors. I am currently looking at this one: Arduino_Motor_Shield__L293___SKU__DRI0001_-DFRobot
But I do not know if it is needed or if there is a cheaper alternative.
My intention is to create a robot that uses these ultrasonic range finders to pick up the location of a moving object and follow it around. 2 would be needed because if the object is picked up by both sensors, both motors would move forward, if it is picked up by the left one, the left motor would move while the right motor would remain stationary and vice versa.
I would like to know how hard would it be to program something like this and if there are any existing tutorials which I can learn from.
446f6d:
Hello everyone, this is my first post in this forum.
Welcome.
I would like to know if it would be necessary to get a motor shield to control the motors.
Necessary? Don't know about necessary. You could do it with a $2.50 chip or a handful of transistors and diodes.
My intention is to create a robot that uses these ultrasonic range finders to pick up the location of a moving object and follow it around. 2 would be needed because if the object is picked up by both sensors, both motors would move forward, if it is picked up by the left one, the left motor would move while the right motor would remain stationary and vice versa.
Having a robot follow a human is not a simple task. An ultrasonic range finder measures distance. You may need to research how you will you tell the difference between a person and a wall. You will probably want the range finders on servos so they can pan.
While you can control motors with a hand full of bits you (as a beginner ) are far better of using a shield. The simplest to use s is the one in the products section of this site, it's not the cheapest but you have to take a choice - do you want to spend a lot of time (and money) building your own electronics ot do you want to get some thing working?
As far as getting the bot to follow some one you will need a lot more than just two US sensors.
By the the way IR sensors are a much better choice. You won.t see many articles about them but that's because they are so easy to use.
By the the way IR sensors are a much better choice. You won.t see many articles about them but that's because they are so easy to use.
I would like to see an article on doing this kind of tracking with an IR sensor. Are you talking about the PIR modules that are fairly common or something different?
I know what are IR sensors, but what are PIR ones?
Also, I have noticed the problem about having the robot tell the difference between a person and a wall, but would it be possible to only detect movement with the range finder?