Where it all started
Two foundational projects from when I was starting out in robotics. A line-following robot and a gear-sketch drawing bot. Simple machines, but they taught me how motors, sensors, and code come together to make something move with purpose.
01 Line Follower
A two-wheeled robot that follows a black line on a white surface using infrared sensors. The IR sensor array reads reflectance values and a control algorithm adjusts motor speeds to keep the robot centered on the line. When the sensor drifts left, the right motor speeds up. When it drifts right, the left motor compensates.
This was the project that taught me the feedback loop: sense, decide, act. The difference between a robot that wobbles off the line and one that tracks smoothly comes down to tuning PID gains, and that process of iterating on constants until the behavior feels right was my introduction to real-time control.
02 Gear Sketch
A mechanical drawing robot that uses interlocking gears to trace geometric patterns on paper. Inspired by Spirograph, but built from scratch with motors and custom gear trains. The gear ratios determine the pattern: different combinations produce different curves, from simple circles to complex hypotrochoids.
This project taught me mechanical thinking. How gear ratios translate rotational speed, how backlash affects precision, and how the smallest misalignment in a gear train compounds into visible error in the output. It was also my first experience designing parts that had to physically fit together, not just compile.
03 What These Taught Me
The line follower drilled sense-decide-act into my thinking. Every robotics project since has been a variation of this pattern, from shadow detection to fireblight classification.
The gear sketch showed me that code precision means nothing if the hardware cannot hold it. Backlash, misalignment, and friction are the real constraints.
PWM, H-bridges, stall current, gear reduction. Both projects forced me to understand how electrical signals become physical motion and how to control it smoothly.
Neither robot worked on the first try. PID gains, gear spacing, sensor thresholds all required iteration. The discipline of measure, adjust, repeat became second nature.
04 Skills