I am making a Line follower as my first project. A robot that follows a line. The components I think are need are An LED detector circuit, A motor controller, A microcontroller to do all logic. I need to know about the LED detector circuit along with the sensors used .
I would start with the pololu sensor. https://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/958 I purchased the digital and the analog sensors. I would think the analog would be the best choice as you can adjust the range easier and just read the analog value on the pic. I am using the pic16f88 from microchip. If you go to the microchip sire you can request free samples. The send you up to 8 every 45 days.