Autonomous car

This maker project displays how an autonomous car can be made with the help of ultrasonic sensors and micro-controller(Arduino).

(Pictures)

The car body has been self-designed to have accurate sensor spaces, the base is designed to have a small pocket for the micro-controller and breadboard to rest in. The base has also been designed to have some spaces for the key components like the two motors around the rear and a servo at the front which also acts like a steering wheel for our car.

Some of the key components being used in the project are as given below:

• Servo motor (According to requirement, recommended 9g, 3~6V)
• 2 x DC Motors (3~6V)
• 4 x Wheels
• 2 x 14500 AA size rechargeable batteries (3.7 v)
• Micro-controller (preferably Arduino UNO)
• IC L293D (Motor controller)
• 3 x Ultra-sonic sensors

The car works autonomously by just turning the switch on and and it would find its way to not collide with objects. The ultra-sonic sensors are designed to be facing north, north-east and north-west, the sensor in north keeps detecting the cars distance from the nearest object and if it detects values less than the threshold distance than it quickly communicates with the other two sensors and finds out which one of them has more distance from the nearest object to makes a turn in that direction. The turning of the car is controlled by the servo motor. Some improvements in the design can be made by adding a bluetooth module to turn the car on and off.

Creating the car is a pleasant experience and can teach a lot of important concepts like autonomous driving and object avoiding. The project simplifies the complex problem of autonomous driving and shows a glyphs of how it can be dealt.

At MakerClubQUT, we have these resources and we make these improvements as make-in-progress projects. If you are interested in making them, please contact us and/or leave any comments below.

By Jash (2020)