Note: this page refers to a product that is retired.

RobotRescue

Train your robot to look for hidden pearls in a maze.

Rescue

The Rescue challenge in robotics consists of getting your robot to follow a line until it reaches a location where it will perform a task. In this case, the robot makes it to an obstacle, pushes it out of the way, and continues along.

Hardware Required

  • Arduino Robot

  • Large paper

  • Thick black marker

  • Obstacles, like empty cans, or not too-heavy toys

  • "victim" objects

Instruction

  1. To prepare the track, follow the instructions in line following example. There are a few differences:

  2. Add some end lines for the robot to stop. Create a gap in the line, and draw a rectangle about the size of the robot in the gap.

  3. Put the "victim" object inside the rectangle.

  4. Upload the example, unplug USB and turn on power.

  5. Put robot on the track, on the line.

  6. The robot will start following the line, and push the victim out of its location

  7. If the robot does not follow the line well, see lineFollowConfig() for details on calibration.

Try it out

First, draw your racing track, adding the stops (perpendicular lines) for the robot to know where the obstacles will be.

Use a marker to design your racing track
Use a marker to design your racing track

Place your obstacles on the track. The robot can push some weight, like empty soda cans or small plastic toys make for good obstacles.

Place the obstacles
Place the obstacles

Put the robot on the track and turn it on to see if it can solve the challenge.

Put the robot to run
Put the robot to run

In front of an obstacle, the robot slows down, starts pushing the object, backs up and starts racing again.

Robot pushing the obstacle away
Robot pushing the obstacle away

Code

1/* Robot Rescue
2
3 In this example, the robot enters the line following mode and
4
5 plays some music until it reaches its target. Once it finds the
6
7 target, it pushes it out of the track. It then returns to the
8
9 track and looks for a second target.
10
11 You can make the robot push as many objects as you want to, just
12
13 add more to calls to the rescue function or even move that code
14
15 into the loop.
16
17 Circuit:
18
19 * Arduino Robot
20
21 * some objects for the robot to push
22
23 * a line-following circuit
24
25 created 1 May 2013
26
27 by X. Yang
28
29 modified 12 May 2013
30
31 by D. Cuartielles
32
33 This example is in the public domain
34
35 */
36
37#include <ArduinoRobot.h> // include the robot library
38#include <Wire.h>
39
40void setup() {
41
42 // initialize the Robot, SD card, display, and speaker
43
44 Robot.begin();
45
46 Robot.beginTFT();
47
48 Robot.beginSD();
49
50 Robot.beginSpeaker();
51
52 // draw "lg0.bmp" and "lg1.bmp" on the screen
53
54 Robot.displayLogos();
55
56 // display the line following instructional image from the SD card
57
58 Robot.drawBMP("lf.bmp", 0, 0);
59
60 // play the chase music file
61
62 Robot.playFile("chase.sqm");
63
64 // add the instructions
65
66 Robot.text("Rescue\n\n place the robot on\n the rescue track\n pushing the\n obstacles away", 5, 5);
67
68 Robot.text("Press the middle\n button to start...", 5, 61);
69
70 Robot.waitContinue();
71
72 // start
73
74 Robot.fill(255, 255, 255);
75
76 Robot.stroke(255, 255, 255);
77
78 Robot.rect(0, 0, 128, 80); // erase the previous text
79
80 Robot.stroke(0, 0, 0);
81
82 Robot.text("Start", 5, 5);
83
84 // use this to calibrate the line following algorithm
85
86 // uncomment one or the other to see the different behaviors of the robot
87
88 // Robot.lineFollowConfig(14, 9, 50, 10);
89
90 Robot.lineFollowConfig(11, 7, 60, 5);
91
92 // run the rescue sequence
93
94 rescueSequence();
95
96 // find the track again
97
98 goToNext();
99
100 // run the rescue sequence a second time
101
102 rescueSequence();
103
104 // here you could go on ...
105
106}
107
108void loop() {
109
110 //nothing here, the program only runs once.
111}
112
113// run the sequence
114void rescueSequence() {
115
116 //set the motor board into line-follow mode
117
118 Robot.setMode(MODE_LINE_FOLLOW);
119
120 while (!Robot.isActionDone()) { // wait until it is no longer following the line
121
122 }
123
124 delay(1000);
125
126 // do the rescue operation
127
128 doRescue();
129
130 delay(1000);
131}
132
133void doRescue() {
134
135 // Reached the endline, engage the target
136
137 Robot.motorsWrite(200, 200);
138
139 delay(250);
140
141 Robot.motorsStop();
142
143 delay(1000);
144
145 // Turn the robot
146
147 Robot.turn(90);
148
149 Robot.motorsStop();
150
151 delay(1000);
152
153 // Move forward
154
155 Robot.motorsWrite(200, 200);
156
157 delay(500);
158
159 Robot.motorsStop();
160
161 delay(1000);
162
163 // move backwards, leave the target
164
165 Robot.motorsWrite(-200, -200);
166
167 delay(500);
168
169 Robot.motorsStop();
170}
171
172void goToNext() {
173
174 // Turn the robot
175
176 Robot.turn(-90);
177
178 Robot.motorsStop();
179
180 delay(1000);
181}

Suggest changes

The content on docs.arduino.cc is facilitated through a public GitHub repository. If you see anything wrong, you can edit this page here.

License

The Arduino documentation is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 license.