Hi!
I am new to Arduino and/or Raspberry Pi and am looking for insight/tutorials on motors and associated hardware/code. The robot that I am eventually hoping to build will be heavy (up to 500 kgs!), running on a flat concrete surface. Everything I can find about using Arduino/Raspberry Pi to control robots references “heavy” to be like 20 kgs. I need propulsion for much heavy than that. Forward/reverse speed will be very slow.
Thank you so much in advance for your help!
Hello @chrisvandenheuvel and welcome to the RobotShop community!
The most important part when dealing with heavy-weight robots is to select the appropriate motors and motor controllers. To accomplish this I suggest you watch the “How to Make a Robot” tutorial series.
I suggest checking the section that explains how to select the motor (gear motors seem to be a good choice for your case).
This tool can also help you to select the motors according to the torque and speed you need for your robot.
And to select the motor controller you should take into account the specifications of the motors you chose (this guide will help you).
To control the motors using Arduino/Raspberry Pi you could use a Serial DC Controller.
I hope this information can help you out!
@chrisvandenheuvel Welcome to the RobotShop Community. Note that a Tesla Model 3 weighs around 1600 Kg, so your robot will weight around 1/3 of that. An electric scooter can easily weigh 150 Kg and transport an additional 100Kg (250Kg total) so that will give you some idea of the size of DC motors you’ll need. You may also consider a small electric stand-on scooter, which uses only one hub motor can propel around 125Kg, so four such hub motors may be able to propel 500Kg on a flat surface.
RobotShop currently doesn’t carry any such motors, but the following 800W scooter motor might be somewhat close:
