International Journal of Conceptions on Information Technology and Computing

Vol. 4, Issue. 2, March’ 2016; ISSN: 2345 - 9808

Optimization of path tracking robot

using robust PID controller
Efficient line follower

Sharyar Naseem, Syed Hasham Hatim, Moez-Ul-Hassan and M Mustafa Jamal

Department of Mechatronics Engineering
SZABIST,
Karachi, Pakistan.
sharyar.naseem@hotmail.com, hashamhatim@gmail.com, moez.hassan@szabist.edu.pk, and mmustafajamal786@gmail.com

Abstract— Line following robot has been considered to have a rapidly developed in both East and West as the demand from
tremendous applicative utilization. Path tracking robots usually the Cold War for missile control systems had increased [2].
deals with errors of following an uneven line or having an erratic
movement. Moreover, deals with slow speed and faces The basic meaning of ‘Control Systems’ is to control or
unsteadiness because of different thickness to the line with edges. manipulate something. It could be something mechanical or
This paper defines the use of PID (Proportional Integral electronic. It deals with is a specific input through which we
Differential) which is implemented on the line following Robot get a specific or a desired output. The engineer is to develop a
through the use of Arduino. The PID helps in smoothing the data certain system which can take an input by the user and produce
with the use of values assigned to it by the user and the robot a certain type of output which is required by the user.
follows more effectively and efficiently then before showing a
consequential result. The proposed cost effective design works on
two sensors which is programmed to detect a black line in order
to follow its path, the resultant we perceive by it is that it has
many promising merits as it is cost efficient, simplicity to its
building and errors are reduced momentously.

Keywords- Line following robot; PID controlling; Automation

Figure 1: Basic Control System Diagram

I. INTRODUCTION The ‘Input signal’ is desired and required to achieve, and

the output signal is what is called the actual signal or response.
Control systems dates back to more than 2000 years, its The system intakes the data and calculates all the data provided
particular application has been to give feedback to the system to it.The question would arise is why do we use this, and the
which has been the base of automation. Anciently it has many answer would have for basic reasons which are as follows:
uses; it has been used as level controller, hydraulics and water
clocks. It deals with both the mechanical and the electronic part 1) Amplifies the power.
as well. In the 17th century the uses had been to control the 2) Controls machines or objects remotely.
temperature and control mills mechanically moreover the
regulation of steam powered engines. It was determined at the 3) Calculates and also controls varying form of data.
time of 19th century that the system will have instabilities and
need to be dealt with. The criterion of the stability was derived 4) It compensates for the disturbances.
by Ruth from England and Hurwits from Switzerland [1]. There are two basic configurations that are dealt with in
Control systems, the open loop and closed loop.
In the 1920s Minorsky’s analytical prove of ship control
further clarified about the three-term control. In the 1930s there The open loop has an input which works itself in the system,
were developments in servo and the communication this type of system will contain errors and disturbances which
engineering and so to wanting better performance on the gun- cannot be corrected, where as in the closed loop there is a term
‘feedback’ used which is connected from output to the input,
control systems a new body had emerged in UK, US and
elsewhere during and just after the WWII which was called the function it does is to correct the system plus clear out the
‘Classical Control’ while this was in making there was another disturbances that the system will have initially. This system is
approach to dynamic modeling which has emerged in USSR, more complex and expensive than the open looped one. Closed
loop systems will be used when the system is far bigger and
this was based on the approaches by Poincaré and Lyapunov.
The state-space, known as modern control techniques had there can’t be more errors to deal with, where errors are risk

1
 International Journal of Conceptions on Information Technology and Computing
Vol. 4, Issue. 2, March’ 2016; ISSN: 2345 - 9808

[3]. Open loops will be used for far simpler systems where the desired set point value. For example if we consider an
there is no need for compensating for the errors; the cost is the ON/OFF controller which can be used in operating a
main issue. thermostat inside a heater which is considered to be as an open
loop system within the controller receives the input and
A. Proportional Integral Derivative
compares it with the set value, deciding whether to turn it on if
PID (Proportional Integral Derivative) has three basic the input value is below set value or to turn off if the input
components which are Proportional, integral and derivative. value is above set point value in this type of control there is
neither any error created or any error rectified.
1) Proportional: It is dependent upon the error term which is
the difference between process variable and a set point. However if we go deep, there are many types of controller
There is term called proportional gain and the from a simple ON-OFF controller to a Proportional Controller
mathematical symbol for it is (Kc), it is used for whereas alternatives to this type of controllers are Proportional
calculating the ratio between the output response and the Integral and the most famous one Proportional Integral
error signal. This term is used for increasing the speed of Derivative Controller, the basics of these controllers are
the response that the control system generates. Generally it applied inside Industrial Controllers for controlling huge
can be concluded that it acts as a multiplier. The value of industrial plants.
proportional gain is very crucial it can stable or unstable
C. Applications
the whole system [4].
An application of controllers using a feedback system or
2) Integral: Its function is to sum up the error with respect to
say a closed loop system is the controlling of cruise in an
time. The error increases the response of integral slowly. automobile in which the driver or the operator selects the
As it will increase of time unless it reaches to the value of desired speed or the set value for the cruise control system
zero, so what we intend to do is make the steady-state upon which an output speed is generated which is then
error reach zero. Steady-State error is defined as the end
compared with the set value and the error is sent to the
difference between a settled point and processing variable, controller which manipulates the error and makes adjustments
so the function of the integral component is to saturate the accordingly in order to obtain the set value [6].
controller without its error signal being reached towards
zero [5]. Other applications of controllers include autopilot
controller in an aircraft system whose purpose is to maintain
3) Derivative: Its basic function is to decrease the output if flight path, stability and trajectory of the plane. PH controller is
has been increasing rapidly. Increasing the derivative time
used when we want water treatment in which we want to
which is denoted by (Td) will cause the whole system to maintain the pH value of the water. Temperature controllers are
speed up. This component is very sensitive to noise so used inside a boiler in order to maintain the temperature inside
when there is an error in the feedback and the loop is filled the boiler [7].
with noise or is slow; it will make the whole system go
towards the instability. When we take a look at the controllers designed for
Industries which take the basic of controllers, are said to be
B. Controllers
Industrial Control Systems which are now a major part in
If we define a controller it is basically a device which industrial production reducing the need for man-power. Such
makes use of mechanical pneumatic hydraulic or other Industrial Systems include SCADA (Supervisory Control and
electronic instruments also in various combinations but more Data Acquisition), DCS (Distributed Control System) and even
recently they are applied using microprocessor or in the form other smaller control systems like PLC (Programmable Logic
of a computer, their main purpose is to monitor and control the Controller) which works on the basic principle of relays.
conditions of operating a system which has dynamic variables.
Such type of Systems that incorporate controllers are
Controllers work in different principles one as an open widely used in gas plants, power plants, food manufacturing
loop controller system other as a closed loop/feedback plant and also in the power industry. When data is received
controller system. In an Open Loop system a controller is from stations that are remote i.e. from the field, based upon that
basically used as a switching device meaning only to turn it on data these control systems automate according to the operator
or off. In a Closed Loop system the output of system which is set values by sending the desired data to the remote control
known as the controlled variable is fed back to the controller stations also known as field devices. These devices are usually
which compares the output with the input and deals with any found controlling the local field operations which is to open or
error if generated. closing breakers and valves, or to collect data from various
sensors and also to monitor the environment for any alarming
After the dynamic variables are applied inside a control conditions.
system it evaluates the set point and the actual output after
receiving the error which is between the set value and the
output value it will then try to regulate and control output
behavior. This is achieved by either amplifying or attenuating
the input signal to the entire plant so that the output matches

2
 International Journal of Conceptions on Information Technology and Computing
Vol. 4, Issue. 2, March’ 2016; ISSN: 2345 - 9808

II. DESCRIPTION OF MECHANICAL DESIGN

Figure 2: 3D view of Cart

Our design of the line follower is quite compact in

comparison to others which are quite large as shown in the
Figure 2. Now if we describe it in detail our line follower
includes a chassis, which is entirely made up of plastic, has two
rear wheels which is made up of plastic and rubber and is
operated by two motors of 9V DC supply each. It is controlled
by the help of H-Bridge Driver IC, then in the front there is the
Omni Wheel, it is made up of steel and is basically a
multidirectional wheel which can go in any direction. If we
look at the heart of the chassis, there lies our Controller which Figure 4 Methodology of Line Follower
in this case is an Arduino UNO through which we are
implementing P.I.D Control (Proportional Integral Derivative A. Motors and the Driver Module
Controller) to our line follower in order to increase the
The motor selected for our Line follower is a 9V DC
efficiency of the whole system [8]. And finally in front beneath
Motors. The motors are connected to the supplied H-bridge
the chassis lies our I.R Sensor (Infrared Sensors) which is the
Motor Driver Module which has the ability to control the basic
most important part of the whole system and its sole purpose is
maneuver of the motor by the help of logic signals which
to sense whether it’s the Black Line or anything else which in
makes it very adaptable for microcontroller’s control
turn will send a signal back to the controller indicating the
applications. The controller module is also equipped with a
result of the sensor to make a decision accordingly which
speed feedback and speed control facilities which rely on
ultimately impacts the motors movement and speed so that the
voltage signals which is done through PWM (Pulse Width
line follower can follow the black line efficiently. Figure 3
Modulation) signals [9].Figure 5 shows a picture of the Driver
shows a basic flow chart of the system.
module used:

Figure 5: H-Bridge Motor Driver Module

B. Main Controller
The main controller’s function is to oversee the general
function of the robot [10]. For our Line follower applications,
Figure 3: Basic Description the microcontroller chosen is the ATmega328 microcontroller
also known as Arduino UNO manufactured by Arduino. It has
III. EXPERIMENTAL SETUP an operating voltage of 5V; it takes around 7 to 12 input
Figure 4 shows the basic setup of the line follower. voltages which maximum of 6 to 20 input voltages and it
contains 14 I/O pins of which 6 are PWM pins. It weighs 25 g.
The experiments were made using a plastic chassis. It will The rational reason behind this is simply because that the
be a two-wheeled mobile robot with motors and sensors were
Arduino is easily obtainable with a reasonable cost.
custom made to suit the purpose of this research. The Line
Follower robot would consist of the following electronic
components:

3
 International Journal of Conceptions on Information Technology and Computing
Vol. 4, Issue. 2, March’ 2016; ISSN: 2345 - 9808

Figure 6 shows what an Arduino UNO looks like: that we did on our Arduino UNO. Nevertheless, it was powered
by two 9V DC motor linked to an H Bridge Motor Driver I.C
whose description is already mentioned above. The Line
Follower which we built to examine the results of proposed
technique is shown in Figure 9 and Figure 10.

Figure 6: Arduino UNO

C. Sensors
The sensors used in the experiment are custom made which
consist of an IR LED, Photodiode, IC LM358M and LED to
indicate it’s on. There are only two sensor boards so there are
in total two sensors used they are built upon the circuit as
shown in Figure 7. Figure 8: Movement Pattern of the LFR PID Robot 1

Figure 7. IR Circuitry

D. PID Algorithm
The algorithm is simple, the input is compared with the set Figure 9 Real Cart Top View
value (set point) upon which if there is any error it rectifies it
by creating an output equal to the difference between the set
value and the input. However if there is no difference between
the set value and the input, the output is generated in such a
manner that the difference remains zero [15].

IV. PID EQUATION

PID Equation:
 Figure 10: The Real Cart Side View

Laplace Transform of the PID Equation: Although much better results could have been achieved with
 the help of more infrared sensors we opted to use only two of
the sensors on our L.F.R and tried to achieve the best possible
Where
result with the help of a P.I.D Controller. However for the sake
= Proportional Gain
of comparing & achieving results we first used the L.F.R
= Integral Gain without the P.I.D controller and the result was somewhat as
= Derivative Gain follows
e(t) = Error

V. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Figure 8 depicts the movement of the L.F.R which we
implemented. The back tires were rotated in clockwise and
anti-clockwise directions so that the robot can change its Figure 11: Movement of LFR without PID
direction left or right [11], all with the help of the programming

4
 International Journal of Conceptions on Information Technology and Computing
Vol. 4, Issue. 2, March’ 2016; ISSN: 2345 - 9808

The result,in Figure 11, L.F.R was like an On-Off movement [4] John W. Webb and Ronald A. Reis “PID Control of Continuous
Processes” onProgrammable Logic Controllers, 4th ed., Prentice Hall
depicting the existence of an On-Off Controller [12]. PTR.
[5] Matt Krass, PID Control Theory, Matt Krass 2nd ed., 2006.
Then we developed the P.I.D controller with the help of the [6] Li Y., Ang K.H and Chong G.C.Y, PID Control system analysis and
Arduino’s PID library we uploaded the code inside our design, IEEE Control System Magzine, 2006, pp.32-41.
Arduino UNO so that it can act as the PID controller and [7] Astr¨om, K.J., Hang, C.C., Persson, P., Ho, W.K., Towards intelligent
immediately the results were vastly improved and the L.F.R PID control, Automatica, vol. 28, 1992, 1-9.
became more efficient which can be seen in Figure 12: [8] Lancet Mit “Introductuon to D.C. Motors” User conference, Austin
texas Vol 11 2004
[9] B.C. Kuo "Automatic Control Sytems" (sixth edition), Prentice Hall,
1991.
[10] M. Zafri Baharuddin, Izham Z. Abidin, S. Sulaiman Kaja Mohideen,
Yap Keem Siah, and Jeffrey Tan Too Chuan. “Analysis of Line Sensor
Configuration for the Advanced Line Follower Robot.” Universiti
Figure12: Movement of LFR with PID Tenaga Nasional, Malaysia
Now even you can notice the on-off or the Zig-Zag pattern [11] Choi, Y., Chung, W.K., PID Trajectory Tracking Control for
has disappeared and a much smoother response to the path that Mechanical Systems, Springer, 2004
has to be followed can be observed [13]. Plus as we compared [12] Ang K., Chong G., Li Y., “PID control system analysis, design, and
technology”, IEEE Trans. Control System Technology, vol. 13, p. 559 –
a single lap time for our L.F.R Robot when the controller was 576, Jul. 2005.
using the On-Off algorithm with the P.I.D algorithm [14], time [13] Astrom, K., T. Hagglund, “PID Controllers; Theory, Design and
taken for the L.F.R to complete a single lap was noticeably Tuning”, Instrument Society of America, Research Triangle Park, 2005.
halved. Hence our objective was achieved and our L.F.R robot [14] J. J. D’Azzo and C. H. Houpis, “Linear control system analysis and
became more efficient and responsive [16]. design”, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1995.
[15] Otto Mayr, The Origins of Feedback Control. Cambridge, MA: M.I.T.
REFERENCES Press, 1970.
[16] Borenstein, J., Everett, H.R. , Feng, L., and Wehe, D."Mobile Robot
[1] C.C Bissel: A History of Automatic Control, Part 4, Springer. Positioning: Sensors and Techniques." Invited paper for the Journal of
[2] Stuart Bennett, A History of Control Engineering 1800-1930. Stevenage: Robotic Systems, Special Issue on Mobile Robots. Vol. 14, No. 4, April
Peter Peregrinus, 1979. 1997
[3] Graham C. Goodwin, Stefan F. Graebe and Mario E. Salgado“Classical
PID Control” in Control System Design, Prentice Hall PTR.