Has anyone been combining radio control car technology and autonomous controls? I found the contribution by fritsl https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/node/928. It is over a year old now. What has been happening since then?
Umm if you use radio control
Umm if you use radio control it isn’t autonomous 
What exactly are you wanting to do?
**What exactly are you wanting to do? **
We have a new middle school in Fitchburg, MA that has a theme of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). One part of this is getting the students interested. I can think of few things more attractive to middle school aged kids than hobby grade radio controlled trucks. I am just dreaming about mixing the sexy mechanical, electro-mechanical, and electronic RC truck systems with the cold blooded discipline (garbage in, garbage out) of microprocess control.
If ‘intent’ and ‘formal language’ are major aspects of STEM, the RC Cars are lacking the latter. They seem more trial and error. If a controlled experiment (let’s say after changing the hydraulic oil in the shock absorbers) were the goal, it would be nice if the experiment were under microprocessor control.
Ken
Some ideas
Frisl’s wall racers are certainly fun and would grab student’s attention. To gain the educational aspect, consider the programming behavior. How do the cars decide when to turn? How do they handle passing? What changes could be made to improve performance?
You can obviously apply microcontrollers to modified RC cars programmed for other functions. Try a race through an obstacle course where the microcontroller has to balance speed with obstacle avoidnace and navigation.
Another area would be to apply various sensors that can be monitored. You can use encoders on the wheels to detect distance. You can monitor current usage and try to come up with bots that are the most energy efficent at completing a certain task.
Create different challenges, starting simply at first and then let them add capabilities to the same robot frame to enhance their understanding.
Good luck!
THANK YOU for your suggestions
While walking my dog this morning it occured to me that a run around the gym floor which included negotiating going under a section of the fold down stands would be just the thing. Another thought is the same gym floor course but including a maze built of cardboard boxes.
I have access to a RC dealer in town. http://www.rcexcitment.com We know some VEX oriented folks. I went to the robots world hoping to get a bettter insight of the fundamentals of what is comercially available. I am a retired hardware/software engineer, (graduated from CISCO Systems) but I have not touched hardware design in twenty years.
Any help and guidance would be appreciated.
Ken
Well if you are starting
Well if you are starting from an existing hardware platform, you don’t have much to do for the physical robot.
For the processor, there are now a lot of options. You will find examples of some on this site.
- Picaxe: Created in the UK for educational purposes, and now picked up by hobbyists. Basic programming language makes this an easy place to start.
- Arduino: Held by many to be a more adaptable/powerful platform than Picaxe. Requires higher level programming skills (e.g., C)
- PIC processors: Programming based on a raw Programmable IC usually requires assembly programming skills. Not for the feignt of heart.
- Small PC form factor: There are PC based systems that many people have integrated into their robots.
You should find examples of the above. There are others out there as well.
There are also lots of sensors and actuators (motors, servos, etc.) available. Check out the Components section of this site, or look through the links of the shops at the bottom of the main page.
I often made combinations of
I often made combinations of RC and autonomous, in fact I almost do it on every project I make!
It is (for me) the easier way to program them; Hook up some form of remote, send some variables in, see what happens. Slowly I let go of remote, as more and more autonomous is put in.
In fact the wall racers where an exception; They are so simple in the code that no RC was needed to build them up.
I have an old joystick mounted on a black box, and a display to it. That way I can also program the remote as I want.
Here you can see the joystick in action (last part of movie)
https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/node/35
Here you can see a Picaxe 8 being fed with data from the Joystick. So the Joystick is actually programmed to a send a series of moves to the robot, when I click the button. That way much more advanced stuff can be done with the 8’s extremely limited memory… and exactly when I want it to happen; I press the button.
https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/node/101
This one:
https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/node/1469
got sensors on it later, so it would overrule me if I was about to drive into something. The result can be seen in a test here, where I am trying to drive into some rocks, it is the robot that takes over and takes me out of trouble 
https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/node/1512
How to tell if the cheap RC car steers with a motor??
Fritzl,
Today I went to Toys R Us and checked out their RC cars display. Surely many are less expensive than their counterpart at our RC Cars hobby shop. Nowhere could I find on the packages whether or not the steering is by servo or by motor. The information is not available on the Toys R Us WEB page. Any suggestions? I did not see the two car set which you picture on your WEB page.
Ken
Only the expensive (hobby
Only the expensive (hobby stores) have servo steering. I bet you it will be hard to find any with servo steering in TRU!