Rocker Bogie mechanism + camera

Hi,

Aside from mechanical parts to assemble the system, you will need independent control of each of the six motors (if you are trying to reproduce the system faithfully / with full functionality).

This would most likely require multiple motor drivers as we do not sell any with 6 channels (AFAIK). Choosing a motor controller is rather tricky with so little information, since usually it is spec’d based on the motor(s) required for the project.

Therefore, we recommend that you first determine the torque required for your setup. From what we know of the rocker bogie mechanism used in the mars rover, the setup was done in a way that each motor could individually lift/pull a significant portion of the total weight of the robot. Therefore, you will most likely need powerful DC motors, most likely in the 12-24 V DC nominal range.

As mentioned above, without more motor specs, it is difficult to asses what motor controller you will need, so here are some general recommendations. To keep your project capable while still being cost effective, you may want to look at controllers such as the RB-Cyt-132 (1 channel, can do up to 13 A @ 5-30 V DC). There is also a dual channel version, RB-Cyt-153, but it only supports up-to 10 A @ 5-25 V DC. Another good set of options are the Sabertooth (dual channel) 5 A @6-18 V DC, RB-Dim-30. In the higher current range / for larger motors, you may be interested in the RB-Dim-23 and the RB-Bat-46.

For the very powerful motor controllers, you can check the 30+ A DC controllers category.

For motors, you can have a look here. Most specifically, you may want to check out the planetary gear motors as there is some very powerful ones available in that category.

For controlling all of this, you will need some brain. Since you wish to do wireless feed and such, we’d recommend most likely going for a SBC (Single Board Computer), such as the Raspberry Pi 3 since it has integrated WiFi/Bluetooth, known good camera add-ons and also a ton of useful code and community support. If you are using motor controllers with USB ports, you can possibly just control them directly from the Raspberry Pi by connecting them to it directly.

If the motor controllers are not USB compatible, we strongly recommend to use a microcontroller board to control them and interface with the SBC, such as an Arduino-based microcontroller board with a USB port.

Aside from a bunch of wires and cables to connect all of this stuff, you will most likely need two power sources (different voltages) for the motors and electronics. There are many ways to go about this, but some of the typical ones are:

  1. A battery pack of different voltage for each circuit (1 for motors/motor controllers, 1 for electronics). The one for electronics may or may not need regulation, depending on what electronics you are using. For example, most Arduino boards have on-board regulation for the voltage source Vin]. In the case of an SBC like the Raspberry Pi 3, you would need a stable 5 V DC, 3 A power source.

  2. One battery pack for both systems, the electronics being fed by a power regulation boards which also acts as a filter for the noise from the motors.

Whichever case you choose to go for, you will need battery packs (NiMH or LiPo, we recommend 12 V DC in most cases for motors), proper compatible charger and a regulator for your electronic to the proper voltage, typically a 5 V DC power regulator.

We hope this helps get you started. Feel free to post more questions if you need more information about products.

Sincerely,