Hi, I was wondering if somebody could provide me with some advice. I plan to move from Lego to Arduino robots for my yr 11 students and I am looking for a good platform. I think tank platforms look great and could get students engaged, but I do not know how precise they are in turning? Does anybody have experince with the Devastator tank platform from DFRobot (http://goo.gl/OeSSEPc) or any other tank platform? How precise do they drive? We do project where robots have to find coloured cans, move them with an arm/gripper, follow lines and avoid objects etc. Robot should provide options to easy attach sensors etc. Regards, Richard
Tracked vehicles are going
Tracked vehicles are going to be harder to turn precisely since they slip a bit when you turn them.
If I may ask, what is wrong with the Legos? I like that you can do so much with the Legos and really let the imagination go. I wish I had done that for my son instead of limiting him to what the kits I bought him can do. Otherwise, he really needed access to my shop to be able to do just about anything. Also, the chip is completely hackable and can be programmed with Java so you really aren’t limited to the software that comes with Legos.
Regards,
Bill
tank tracks
I agree with nhbill that the steering is subject to slippage but there is something very attractive about this platform. Assuming you have sensors to locate the objects, tracks will be a fine and very stable drive mechanism.
I am currently trying to add a digital compass to a home brew tracked vehicle and have just added the devastor and BLE Arduino controller to a DFRobot shopping list. I also included the motor speed encoders.
As for Bill’s son and kits, I think his son has done very well.
Thanks very much for your
Thanks very much for your replies.
Bill, I probably was not clear enough in my statement about moving away from Lego in my yr11 class. I will push Lego into my year 8 curriculum in 2016 and either have to buy more Lego kits for my year 11 students or replace the 11 Lego resources with Arduino based robots. As I started to introducing Physical Computing into year 10 and will introduce it next year to yr9 and maybe yr11, I rather move to the Arduino platform as it is more versatile, is cheaper, is more real life and has more sensors to offer. I love Lego and it is great for younger as it is easy and very robust.
Ggallant, thanks for your info about tracks. You wrote “Assuming you have sensors to locate the objects, tracks will be a fine and very stable drive mechanism.” The plan would be to have an ultrasonic sensor. In the past I did an assignment project where students had to locate and sort different coloured cans in a circle. With an ultrasonic sensor adding enough impreciseness and the available griper for Arduino robots being not very wide, I was wondering if I could do a similar assignment with the Devastator. Other projects we did was driving though a very very labyrinth using the ultrasonic sensor. Do you think the tracks are precise enough to control for that? Would carpet solve the problem?
Would a 4DW robot be better? I assumed it would be worse as it has no steering and hace drag weels when turning?
Thanks,
Richard
**Tracked vehicle program **
Sounds like a great academic program. Having a progression in technology sounds ideal. If anything I would add something like the Raspberry Pi for the upper grades. About 10 years ago I navigated the maze for the Trinity College Fire Fighting Contest (great even) with tracks made from double sided timing belts, 6 IR distance sensors, and a CMPS01. This was on a smooth plywood base.
It was ok transitioning from wood to carpet and back. It had about 18cm ground contact with 2cm clearance at the front and rear sprockets No suspension.
I suspect that 4 wheels would be worse unless they have steerage.
With your multi year program you could demo the pluses and minuses of the different drive mechanisms.
On a different topic, could you post some student projects?