XBot is the first robot I ever made. It started off as a computer controlled (via the parallel port) 'robot'. With the aid of a small program that I wrote in C++, I could control the robot using the arrow keys from my keyboard. After that I learned how to program the PIC1684 microcontroller. It was a matter of few days until I replaced the parallel port control with an onboard controller (PIC16F84) and added some sensors (IR and Ultrasonic). The robot could navigate in an area avoiding any obstacles in its path and it could also perform line-following. A pair of optical encoders was also used to accurately measure the wheel rotation and provide feedback to the microcontroller.





