Which sensor for line following a 400m running track?

Using Arduino Project Guidance
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I am working to make an RC car follow the line on a 400m athletic track, and eventually set pace. So speeds will be relatively high, between 6 and 20mph. My RC car is a 1/8th scale brushless electric buggy.

Our track in particular is gold and blue. I know I'll probably need to use a PID control algorithm.

I was thinking of using an Arduino UNO and maybe one or two of these "Pololu QTR-8RC Reflectance Sensor Arrays"? My concern is they will have trouble picking up a somewhat weakly contrasted line, as well as trouble with high speeds.

Maybe something different would work better? Please guide me with the sensor choice!

Thanks!

Here are a few pictures of the track. The line gets a bit weak at spots where just the white paint fades a bit

360×640 94.2 KB

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I ended up ordering this, hopefully I won't run into too much trouble? :slight_smile:

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It ought to be possible to get something that will work under specific conditions.

Getting something that will work reliably under a wide range of conditions is a much, much harder problem to crack. If this is your goal, I suggest you will probably need to install a dedicated marker for your vehicle to follow, and it will probably need some trial and error to find a combination of marker and sensor that works reliably enough.

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