🏁 Smart Arduino Car — ETE3007 Robot Challenge Spring 2025

This project is an autonomous smart car developed for the DEU ETE3007 Fundamentals of Robotics Robot Challenge (Spring 2025). The car uses a modular event-driven control system, relying solely on onboard sensors and logic to navigate the competition track featuring hills, wall obstacles, and color zones.

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🎯 Objective

Build an autonomous mobile robot capable of navigating the challenge track from start to finish, without remote control, in accordance with competition rules. The robot must:

• Start autonomously after a reset
• Pass over a hill and through three wall obstacles
• React accurately to colored track zones
• Reach the finish line while earning checkpoints and time bonuses

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🔧 Hardware Used

Component	Description
🧠 Arduino Uno	Main microcontroller
⚙️ Adafruit Motor Shield	Controls 4 DC motors
🚗 4x DC Motors	Provides locomotion
📏 Ultrasonic Sensor	Used for obstacle detection and alignment
🔋 Battery Pack	Powers motors and Arduino

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🧠 Software Architecture

The robot is driven by a custom event queue system, where each event contains:

• An action function (what the robot should do)
• A condition function (when to do it)
• An optional duration (how long the action should run)

struct Event {
  ActionFunction action;
  ConditionFunction condition;
  unsigned long duration; // in ms
};

✅ Features

• Event Queue Logic: Modular movement instructions that run under given conditions or time constraints
• Distance Alignment: AdjustMiddle() aligns the robot to a target distance using PID-like speed control
• Actions Supported:
  • Forward, Backward
  • Left and Right Turn
  • Stop
• Obstacle Handling: Ultrasonic sensor helps maintain spacing from obstacles (walls, checkpoints)

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🛠 How to Use

1. Connect hardware as follows:
   • Motors to M1–M4 on AFMotor Shield
   • Ultrasonic sensor:
     • TRIG_PIN → A1
     • ECHO_PIN → A0
2. Upload the sketch to the Arduino.
3. Place robot at the start line.
4. Press the reset button to start execution after referee’s start signal.

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🧪 Behavior Flow

The robot proceeds through a sequence of actions such as:

• Drive forward for specified durations
• Use AdjustMiddle() to align distance (e.g., before a wall or obstacle)
• Turn left or right at specific checkpoints
• Stop at the finish line

Example event:

addEvent(
  []() { AdjustMiddle(26); },
  []() { return CorrectFlag; },
  0
);

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📊 Scoring Strategy

The robot is designed to maximize the following:

• ✅ Passing Checkpoints (walls and hill)
• ⏱ Time Efficiency via optimized speed and smooth transitions
• 🤖 Complexity & Embedded Control using event-based logic
• 📏 Distance Adjustments for obstacle safety
• 🎨 Future additions may enhance aesthetics if needed

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📁 Project Structure

smart-car/
├── smart_car.ino         # Main Arduino code
├── README.md             # Project documentation (this file)
└── competition_doc.pdf   # ETE3007 competition guidelines

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📌 Rules Compliance

✅ No remote control used
✅ Fully autonomous and self-contained
✅ Communication modules (Bluetooth/WiFi) not used during execution
✅ Final reset logic triggered manually before starting

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📜 License

MIT License – free to use, modify, and learn from for educational and competitive purposes.