PSoC 4 Line-follower robot for Engineering Mixed Signal Electronics Course

This work presents the design and implementation of a line follower robot based on the PSoC 4 chip from Infineon Technologies. This robot is used in teaching practices with the aim that students consolidate and put into practice the knowledge obtained theoretically. The developed robot has been designed with the aim of solving some problems presented by the robots previously used in the subject. To achieve this, a robot with a small chassis has been designed. This allows the robot to be very agile and to be able to overcome three different types of circuits (race, maze and sinuous). The robot is powered by four AAA batteries. The robot moves thanks to two DC motors, which are powered by a boost converter. Furthermore, the robot has a 5 V linear regulator to power the necessary electronic components. To accurately identify the position of the line, the robot has an array of 7 optical sensors, whose output voltage is read by the PSoC 4, the integrated circuit responsible for processing the information and controlling the robot. Additionally, the robot has 3 user buttons, as well as a 2x8 LCD display and an RGB LED that allow students to interact with the robot. A PSoC 5 - based programmer is used. This programmer lets the student easily program the robot from the USB port of any computer using the
$\mathbf{PSoC}$
Creator software. Moreover, this programmer establishes a UART communication between the robot and the computer. Such communication is especially useful for debugging. The use of these robots has improved the quality of teaching and has increased the interest and involvement of students in the subject.