Where it all started· 2016

Line Tracking Racer

My first robotics competition: whose robot follows the line fastest? It was also the first time I met a PID controller.

Champion
Robotics
PID control
Competition

A young Arm holding a trophy at the SPU Line Tracking Robot Contest

2016
I entered a robotics competition to see whose robot would be the fastest. It was my first introduction to how amazing, fun and exciting real engineering can be.
Was it fast?
Not really. But considering what I knew at the time, I am pretty proud of my younger self. (Plus, I won the competition, haha.)
Why it matters
Everything on this site traces back to this little car. Scroll down and tune one yourself.

The final round

The final round of the race, 2016. Phone footage, so it is small and shaky.

Your turn

Tune it yourself.

A line-following robot steers with a PID controller: three numbers that decide how it reacts when the line drifts away from the middle of its sensor.

Pick a preset to see what each one does. Then drag the sliders and try to get a lap under the target time without losing the line.

Fig. 2: a line follower

Sensor readinghow far off-center the line is

This lap: 0.00 s
Last lap: --
Best lap: --
Beat this: 3.50 s

Gets round, but it weaves.

P0.35How hard it steers back toward the line.I0.00Corrects a small error that will not go away.D0.010Calms the wobble.Speed150Faster is harder to control.

A simulation of the idea, not the original robot's code.

More pictures

The first line tracking robot: a small board with two wheels and a sensor arm — Robot number one.

A later, larger line tracking robot with a custom circuit board — A later, much more serious one.

Arm tuning the robot on a laptop beside the race track — Tuning between rounds.

Next project

Bexo

Powered back exosuit

2016

Was it fast?

Why it matters

Tune it yourself.