Questions about dc motors for autonomous robot

Lynxmotion Rovers, Sumo, and Tracked
1

Hello my name is Nick
I am building an autonomous robot for my senior design project. I am having several issues with findind the right motors, wheels, gear box, and battery. The robot weighs approx 10lb. I need the robot to travel 3mph. It will have 4 wheels and 4 dc motors. I need to know what rpm the motors must be to handle the weigh and still drive 3mph. I need to know the size of the wheels needed to let the bot run. I need to know what size battery I need to power all 4 motors and the programmed board and the camera. I will be going with 12 volt nimh battery. It’s light and doesn’t have memory issues. The robots turning is very sharp. Meaning that the motors must be programmable and reversible. If the robot wants to turn right- the 2 left wheels will drive forward and the 2 right wheels will drive in reverse and the robot will turn very sharp. If any one can help me calculate the torque and rpm needed in each motor and where to buy the parts, I will be very thankful.
Thank you for your time and if you have any questions please ask away

Nick

2

Take a look at the following article to help you get started:
robotshop.com/blog/en/drive- … -tool-9698
There is also a tutorial to go with it:
robotshop.com/blog/en/?p=3661

3

Hey Nick,

Sounds like your project shares a lot of similarities to my ROVer project (links below). You might want to view a couple of my recent videos with ROVer running to get a sense of speed/distance with the given setup. ROVer can probably travel faster than what you need - the tests are done at about quarter-speed, but you’ll get a feel.

I also have a bunch of videos that talk about the motor, batteries and wheel choices… it might help.

Cheers,

Nick (also).

4

Thank you both. I took the day off today so I can research all articles and videos you sent. I will have a decision made today hopefully. Thank you