Now that i have several small robots under my belt, along with a somewhat firm grasp of programming basics i would really like to scale up. I worked on a robot for the FIRST robotics competition which was really my first time handling a somewhat larger project. The materials required for that robot were quite expensive and the robot itself is too big for one person alone.
I'm just going to throw some ideas out there 1. to force myself to actually get started on this and 2. to hear some constructive feedback and to make sure i'm being reasonable.
Ideally i want to build a robot that is relatively large, say at least a foot long and 6'' high. Obviously these don't have to be exact/final measurements but basically i want something that will look impressive (i'll explain in a bit).
What does this mean? Basically up until now i've used either GMs or modded servos and makeshift wheels however, now I want a relatively cheap platform that has relatively high power motors that can go fast and whatnot (again thinking along the lines of something impressive) Additionally i've only used AA batteries, and l293s to drive my motors. I think this means that i'll have to a more powerful motor driver, but basically the rest of the electronics stay the same (asides from batteries)?
From there I plan on throwing on a couple of pings, maybe some sharps, hopefully a camera (impressive) and later on maybe GPS and a full nav system.
Why does all of this have to look impressive? Well firstly i just really want to build a larger robot. Secondly this robot is going to be used to promote the robots team at our school which means... I may be allowed to use some of our funding to cover some costs of the build however, this will primarily be funded by me.
I might as well throw this in here...
I happen to have a rc airplane controller and receiver (spektrum dx6i) it looks like this :http://www.rcsmart.com.my/webshaper/pcm/pictures/Spektrum/dx6-2.jpg
I'm not sure how else to do it but i was thinking i could attach the signal outputs on the receiver to the inputs of the microcontroller which would give me a crude method of controlling the robot remotely. Would this work?
this probably all sounds like ramble, mostly because it is. If anyone could point me in the right direction in terms of chassis or motors and whatnot i would greatly appreciate it.
