Nathaniel "Nathan" Alviso
ABSTRACT
The TUTEBOT is a simple wall-following mobile robot based on the ever-versatile 555 timer IC. It utilizes switches on a bumper to detect collisions with obstacles. When a collision is detected it turns away from the obstacle in a predefined direction.
Tutebot is a tutorial construction project for beginners which implements analog control circuitry to produce a simple obstacle-avoiding and wall-following robot. It exploits the versatility of the family of 555 timer chips and uses it as a sensing chip for the bump switches as well as the timing chip for the turning of the two individual driving motors. Obstacle avoidance is achieved through a simple backtracking of the robot and this is implemented by the construction of an H-bridge circuit utilizing four darlington transistors plus its current source driving transistors which simple reversses the direction of the two motors. Change of direction is achieved by varying the time of reversing of the two motors and the greater the angle of direction change. This is controlled by the two potentiometers where one controls the length of reversing while the other one controls the angle fo direction rotation. Wall following behavior is achieved by proper calibration of these two potentiometers.
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