Design and development of a line following robot guided by pixel values of a camera using FPGA

Main Reasons: The main reason of this project is to design a line following robot which can be guided through camera pixels that uses FPGA as the controller. Using computer vision algorithms programmed into the FPGA we are able to guide the robot through a line of one of three p

Project Title

Design and development of a line following robot guided by pixel values of a camera using FPGA

Project Area of Specialization

Robotics

Project Summary

Main Reasons:
The main reason of this project is to design a line following robot which can be guided through camera pixels that uses FPGA as the controller. Using computer vision algorithms programmed into the FPGA we are able to guide the robot through a line of one of three possible colors. We follow the line by the use of techniques for masking pixels in the camera's image. The existing microcontrollers have their limitation problems and needed to be replaced with new technology. If the system requires expansion or additional features, the designer has no options but has to replace the board. This requires extra man-hours and cost. Hence, this project is set up to demonstrate the capability of FPGA in handling future system expansion or future upgrading issues.

Theme Of The Project:
The theme of this project is to present the development of an FPGA-based system for a line follower robot with a CMOS Camera. It is a proof of concept for robotic applications capable to do actions based on an algorithm using the pixels values of the camera. The robotic system consists of a camera that takes frames and by the use of masking techniques and color, characteristics control the actions of the line follower robot.

Need Of Design:
Mostly the robotics systems are microprocessor-based and the use of FPGA is not usual. This project’s design is the need of today’s robotics world. We consider that a microprocessor-based line follower robot will run slower than the FPGA-based robot line follower and this project is fully FPGA-based in terms of vision and robot control.

Project Objectives

Following are the objectives that we want to achieve through this project:

• To design Line Following Robot without any microcontroller.
• To make the robot followed the colors by masking pixels through the camera.
• To develop the LFR based on FPGA.
• To make the robot run on a code that will be developed on the Verilog language and implemented on the software
• To minimize delay, by synchronizing the LCD with the program that takes the image received from the camera to show the image in real-time.

Project Implementation Method

Usually, a line following robot uses a microcontroller as the controller for the system. However, there is some limitation when using a microcontroller as the input-output pins are preconfigured according to the packaging. If there are any changes in the design or in need of adding new features, the microcontroller needs to be replaced as a whole. Therefore, to overcome this limitation, we adopt FPGA instead of a microcontroller as the input and output pins are also reconfigurable and will accommodate all the required pins for the system. 

Benefits of the Project

This FPGA based Line Following Robot can be used more effectively in various fields of life such as Manufacturing industries, Transportation, and other industrial applications. This robot will be fully operating on FPGA-based image processing. This robot can also be helpful for the movement of heavy objects in various fields. The FPGA-based robotic system runs so fast and soft and can do tasks in a most efficient way than a microprocessor and can be more computationally cheap. It is a positive step forward in the right direction for AI and robotics.

Technical Details of Final Deliverable

For this project mainly we are going to use the following devices:

• FPGA Development Board DE0-NANO
• CMOS Camera
• LCD Touch Panel
• H Bridge L298N

FPGA is acting as a controller for this prototype. The camera delivers the pixel data to DE0-NANO card and this in return sends the acquired image on the LCD screen. The camera image process using computer vision techniques that select areas in the image and according to the pixel values of the areas, the FPGA computes a control action that controls the left and right gear motors to give direction and speed line follower robot. The movement of the robot is carried out by the H-bridge using PWM techniques.

Final Deliverable of the Project

Hardware System

Core Industry

Manufacturing

Other Industries

Transportation , Others

Core Technology

Robotics

Other Technologies

Artificial Intelligence(AI), Internet of Things (IoT)

Sustainable Development Goals

Decent Work and Economic Growth, Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

Required Resources

If you need this project, please contact me on contact@adikhanofficial.com