Autonomous Line-Following Vehicles: Bridging Educational Robotics and Industrial Automation

This article describes an autonomous vehicle model that has been developed for educational purposes, serving as a prototype, in which central aspects that are also present in industrial system navigation design are realized. The vehicle employs an Arduino Nano as a controller and three infrared sensors, each of which is independently driven. This contraption can independently navigate along a predetermined route without any human input. The finite state machine is used to control the vehicle's behavior in various track sections. It shows the implementation of rule-based decision-making at the level of embedded systems. The system employs dynamic speed operation through calibrated PWM signal values. The challenge of the precision of tracking a line with an automated and at the same time high-speed vehicle was addressed, resembling the challenge of the full-scale automated vehicle design.