This 16-Year-Old Used an Arduino to Convert an RC Car to Self-Driving
Boomers often say that technology is souring the minds of the youth. But this self-driving car made by a high schooler indicates otherwise.
As long as there have been kids, there have been adults who insist that the new generation is leading us to our downfall as a species. Even Socrates has an infamous quote admonishing the children of his time and how they “now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for elders and love chatter in place of exercise.” Older generations today, or “boomers” as the kids would call them, often say that technology is souring the minds of the youth. But this self-driving RC car built by a 16-year-old seems to indicate otherwise.
This project was posted by Redditor AtotheZed, whose 16-year-old son is responsible for the build. While AtotheZed says he doesn’t understand a lot of the things his son works on, he was so supportive of he’s sons hobby that he converted the family home’s garage into a workshop for tinkering on projects like this one. This build started with a Traxxas Slash, which is a midrange 1/10 scale radio control car. Like most RC cars, the Traxxas Slash didn’t have any kind of “brain.” It just had a radio receiver connected to motor drivers so that the user can steer and apply throttle. But, with a bit of ingenuity, AtotheZed’s son was able to convert it into a self-driving car.
Instead of using cameras or LIDAR sensors like a truly autonomous vehicle might, this car is designed for line following. It’s equipped with infrared sensors that point at the ground. A line of paper on the ground reflects the infrared light differently than the surrounding surface, which lets the car know when it has started to veer away from the path. An Arduino monitors the IR sensors, and sends signals to the RC transmitter to steer back towards the line when that happens. The usual method would have been to connect the Arduino directly to the motor drivers, but this technique seems to work just as well and probably required less code. In either case, the project was a success and proves that kids today are just as curious and innovative as they have always been.
