Line Follower Competition Your final competition uses the full capabilities of your robot. Now your robot will use feedback to navigate a course.

Goal Program a robot to drive on top of a line. Stop at the end of the line and drive back. The goal of this competition is to write a program that will cause your robot to follow a black line on a white surface. The end of the line is marked with a “T”. At that “T” your robot must stop, turn around, and go back to the beginning.

About the Line Black electrician's tape on a white melamine board Curves left and right, but not too tightly Ends of the line marked with a “T” and the robot can start on any end You will not know the path prior to the competition No reprogramming robots after seeing the path The line follower competition is played on a bright white surface. The competition surface is covered in white melamine, so essentially it is a white board. The line your robot will follow is made of black electrician’s tape. Electrician’s tape is about ¾” wide The tape will lay out a single path that has turns to the right and left. The line will not cross itself and the radius of the turns will not be less than 12 inches. The competition surface will be at least four feet by four feet square. The start and ending points of the black line are marked with a “T” of tape. The “T” will be at least 12 inches wide and will be made from a double wide layer of tape. The robot can start from either end. The exact path will not be published before the competition begins. You must program your robot to navigate any course based solely on feedback. Once the competition begins, there will be no reprogramming of robots.

Example This simple example shows what a competition board will look like. Note that the starting and stopping points are indicated with “T”s.

Scoring Greatest distance traveled without leaving the line Ties judged on shortest time A robot’s score will be the number of inches it follows before leaving the course. If two or more robots drive the same greatest amount of distance, then the winner will be the robot that drove the course in the shortest amount of time.