maze robot for science fair

[dellagd]

I am building a robot for the science fair and I want to make it navigate a maze.

do you think this would work for a maze robot?
I would have 5 IR LEDs placed on the front of the robot as in the pic.
If the LED C detects that there is no wall in...lets say...1-2 inches it will go forward.
if LED C detects a wall then it will ask LED A and E if there is any wall in front of them.
If they say no then the robot will turn in the direction that LED A or E is facing until LED C detects that there is no wall.
then it will go forward.
repeat.

P.S. if LED A and E detect no wall, then it will choose at random which way to turn.

P.P.S. I am putting this on the $50 dollar robot(yes, the LEDs will be level)

P.P.P.S. when I have time I will try to make the robot in sketchup

[cooldog]

how will the ir led's detect the wall?

[dellagd]

they will have recievers behind them.
I haven't made the code yet but the parallax Boe-Bot uses IR LED in a similar way so why wont it work here.

[dellagd]

if anyone has used IR LEDs for navigation, can you plz post the code in this post

[galannthegreat]

If you want to figure out distance with IR LED's you might aswell get some sharp IR rangefinders, they woulfd work nicely in that situation.

[airman00]

how would it know if its going backwards

[galannthegreat]

....then some encoders.... or you might aswell look at Micromouse robots

[dellagd]

Maybe this would work.
it could have little checkpoints.
so once it got to a certain part of the maze, we block off what was behind it.
the real  part about the demonstration is that the robot can tuurn corners w/o running into walls and stuff no that it can figure out a maze.

if any of you have any Ideas on this though, plz tell me

[galannthegreat]

That would be a great idea for demonstrations sake, which seems to me you want to do that, then later on add sensors for all of those other things you may want to add.

[dellagd]

I can mount the rangefinder on a servoand make it scan so I dont have to buy 3 rangefinders correct?

[Razor Concepts]

Yes, but the servo might not have all the range you can get, some servos don't get full 180 degree rotation.

[dellagd]

here is a pic

(yes I know that is a PING)) ultrasonic rangefinder and not a IR Rangefinder)

and yes, I know Razor, I own a 180 degree servo

[ArcMan]

if anyone has used IR LEDs for navigation, can you plz post the code in this post

This is for a line maze, but you could use similar principles for wall following.

http://www.societyofrobots.com/robotforum/index.php?topic=7076.0

[dellagd]

I'm asking for code for IR recievers/ LEDS, not line following stuff.
I just want to know the code for using them.
I didn't see anything about IR LEDs in there.

[dellagd]

me and my friend have until april 1st plz help!

[dellagd]

Here is another pic.
I added two IR LED/reciever combos to each side so it can detect turns at a 4-way intersecion.

[Razor Concepts]

IR LEDs and receivers have a very short range, probably about an inch or so.