Maze Solving Robot
Updated: Jul 23
An autonomous robot that doesn't just escape a maze — it maps the whole track first, then computes and drives the fastest route from start to finish. Steering is handled by a PID control loop that can be tuned live over Bluetooth.
The track
The maze is laid out as 3 cm-wide black lines on a white background, with the start and end points each marked by a solid black square.
How it solves the maze
Survey: on the first pass the robot explores the entire track, building a comprehensive internal map of every junction.
Wait: with the map stored on-board, it returns to the start and waits for the run command.
Solve: placed at the start again, it computes and follows the fastest path from beginning to end using a left-hand-rule algorithm.
Sensing and control
Line sensing: 6 IR transmitter/receiver pairs track the robot's position across the line.
Control: a PID loop keeps it centered and smooth through the turns.
Live tuning: an HC-05 Bluetooth module lets the PID constants be fine-tuned from a PC on the fly — no reflashing between test runs.
Path-finding: left-hand-rule maze solving over the mapped track.
Why it's interesting
Mapping the maze once and then optimizing the route turns a reactive line-follower into something closer to a planner — it separates "learning the maze" from "running it fast."
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