ARDUINO BASED OBSTACLE AVOIDANCE ROBOT CAR

ABSTRACT

This project involves the design and implementation of an intelligent obstacle-avoiding robot car. The

objective of this project is to implement a robot car, which while moving should have the ability to

detect obstacles in its path and change direction where obstacles are present without any form of

external influence. The new direction to be taken to avoid collision is the direction that has the most

distance between the obstacle and the sensor and this is determined by the robot based on sensor

inputs.

This implementation was done using an ultrasonic wave sensor, which measures distance by sending

pulses. Also, the movement of the servo motor (for sensor movement) and the DC motors (for wheel

movement) are controlled by the motor driver shield in order to enable the obstacle avoidance

function. The commands are sent to the Arduino microcontroller chip which serves as the main control

of the robot car, as it controls the sensor and car movement.

The implemented robot car was able to successfully detect and avoid obstacles within the line of sight

of the Ultrasonic sensor used.

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Contents

DECLARATION ....................................................................................................................................................... i

CERTIFICATION .................................................................................................................................................... ii

DEDICATION ....................................................................................................................................................... iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ........................................................................................................................................ iv

ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................................ v

Chapter 1: Introduction .......................................................................................................................................1

1.1 Background ..........................................................................................................................................1

1.2 Research Problem ...............................................................................................................................1

1.3 Motivation ...........................................................................................................................................2

1.4 Aim and Objectives ..............................................................................................................................2

Chapter 2: Literature review ...............................................................................................................................3

2.1 Artificial Intelligence ............................................................................................................................3

2.2 Robotics and Robots ............................................................................................................................3

2.3 Robot Learning ....................................................................................................................................4

2.4 Autonomous Robot .............................................................................................................................4

2.5 Arduino ................................................................................................................................................5

2.5.1 Overview.............................................................................................................................................5

2.5.2 Features ..............................................................................................................................................6

2.5.3 Advantages .........................................................................................................................................7

2.5.4 Arduino Board Types ..........................................................................................................................7

Chapter 3: Materials and Analysis Techniques ...................................................................................................9

3.1 Materials ..............................................................................................................................................9

3.2 Analysis ................................................................................................................................................9

3.2.1 HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensor ..........................................................................................................9

3.2.2 SG-90 Servo Motor ................................................................................................................... 13

3.2.3 Arduino UNO R3 ....................................................................................................................... 15

3.2.4 DC Motor .................................................................................................................................. 17

3.2.5 L293D Motor Driver Shield ....................................................................................................... 19

3.3 Methodology .................................................................................................................................... 20

3.3.1 Robot Construction ......................................................................................................................... 20

3.3.2 Programming the Robot .................................................................................................................. 24 

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Chapter 4: Results and Discussion .................................................................................................................... 33

4.1 Results .............................................................................................................................................. 33

4.2 Discussion ............................................................................................................................................... 34

5 Conclusion, Recommendation and Issues for Future Work ..................................................................... 35

5.1 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................ 35

5.2 Recommendation ............................................................................................................................. 35

5.3 Issues ................................................................................................................................................ 35

References ........................................................................................................................................................ 37

Appendix........................................................................................................................................................... 39