I’m part of a team working a project to design a robot to autonomously navigate a server room. We selected the DFRobot 4WD as our platform and we are looking for a suitable board to control it, preferably C/C++. The plan is to interface 4 sensors on each side of the platform and use the feedback to control the motors and navigate the room.
I was wondering if anyone had some feedback on a nice controller which would allow for the motor control and implementing the navigation algorithms. I was looking at 32 Bit Micro-controllers something along the lines of the Digilent Cerebot Mx4ck Microcontroller Board. Is there anything special in particular we should look for in the board?
I’m also assuming since there are 4 independent motors we would need 4 H-bridges such as the PmodHB3 - H-bridge w/ feedback inputs?
Also whats the benefit of using a motor controller as opposed to microcontroller? I’m assuming the motor controller would be used in conjunction with a micro controller and is just used for power offloading?
Really appreciate any help and thanks again.
Link to Robot Platform
Link to controllers
That controller looks like it would be a good fit. How exactly would I go about sending the signals from boards two motors outputs to four? I’m assuming I would need some sort of amplifier/splitter to take the motor A output and send it to the Left side front/rear motors. Then do the same for the motor B output and send that to the right side front/rear motors. What type of hardware would I need to do the amplify/splitting to ensure I have enough power for the motors?
In order to control the robot, you should not independently control all four motors; the two motors on the left should be operated together and the two on the right should be operated together to give skid steering (like a tank). Therefore you only need a dual motor controller or two single ones. The ROMEO microcontroller can handle this platform and includes a dual DC motor controller and easy pinout for sensors. It can also obtain feedback from encoders.
No splitting necessary - you just connect both motors to one terminal, and the other two motors to the other terminal. Ensure the motor controller can handle the combined current of two motors (for example if each of the four motors operates at 6V, 2A, the motor controller would be a dual 4A (or more).
