Need help, vision system for robot?

Okay, so I am building a robot for school, and basically all I need is a program that can download frames from a camera analyze them and see a "path".

I will be using a vehicle that kids drive in (like when they are toddlers) and I am going to need to know wtf I need to do... ANY help would be lovely, thanks <3

>>7
That was part of the building rules we had to work with; they might have loosened them since.  The sensor limitation was much harder to work around during the robot's autonomous mode.  We implemented our own sensors from wire, wheels, and a compass to work alongside the permitted "canned" sensors but the regional judge made us disable those.