PixBoT: A Mobile Robot Prototype for Real-Time Pigment-Based Object Tracking

Automation and robotics are revolutionizing the way tasks are performed, offering innovative solutions to improve efficiency and convenience in daily life. Autonomous robots, in particular, have gained significant attention for their ability to perform tasks with minimal human intervention. These advancements have opened doors to new possibilities in assisting users with routine or physically demanding activities. This study introduces a mobile robot designed to track and follow objects based on their color, serving as a practical and autonomous load carrier. By leveraging pigment detection technology, the robot identifies and follows a trained object, making it an efficient tool for reducing manual effort in simple tasks. The robot combines both hardware and software components. The hardware includes an Arduino Mega microcontroller, which serves as the main processing component, connected with the Pixy2 camera for pigment-based object detection via the Arduino ICSP pins and the Picy2's I/O connector. The software component involves the communication between the PixyMon application for training the Pixy2 camera to detect trained pigments and the Arduino IDE for programming the Arduino microcontroller. To interpret the data given by the Pixy2 and control the motor controllers. The robot is designed to autonomously follow the target based on its horizontal position, ensuring efficient and reliable use.