This is Faz3a II, my first line-following robot, which I also hope to use for maze-solving. I used the Arduino Uno, Adafruit motor shield, Pololu’s QTR-8RC line sensors and motors. You can build a cheaper and lighter version of this robot using the Atmel Atmega328 and the L293D h-bridge. This robot weighs about 300gm and costs about $90 USD.
For my previous robot projects, I used an empty external hard disk enclosure as the robot platform. But for this robot, I am using a DVD case. All in all, I found the round shape of the DVD case a better choice for maneuverability. Not to mention the low cost of DVD cases and ease of stacking layers to hold more parts, with the help of long screws and nuts.
For this project, my task was simplified by the availability of software libraries from Pololu and Adafruit for the sensor and motor shield respectively.
Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.
Using DVD cases is a cool idea.