Rover V2

Let's Make Robots Robots
1

Here is one of my projects I am currently working on. It is a triple deck, 4 wheel rover. You might of seen my blog here, so some of this might be a repeat of information. 

It has 4 Pololu gear motors which will be controlled using some SN754410 breakout boards I designed. (The PCBs are on there way). It has 2 servos, one on the top and bottom plate. An infrared distance sensor gets mounted on each servo. 4 CDS light sensors get mounted on the 4 corners of the second deck. The robot also has an onboard compass. This compass will aid in navigation and steering. An LCD provides feedback. Buttons allow different modes and controls to be accessed. The whole thing gets controlled by a Seeeduino mega. 

 

The plates were laser cut (ignore the one on the left, that is a different project)

 

Here are some first looks of how the robot goes together:

 

The LCD and buttons go on the back here:

 

The motors will get mounted on the bottom using mounts from Pololu

 

The top sensor will be detecting obstacles in the front and the bottom one will detect objects on the floor.

375×500

 

The motor mounts bolt onto the bottom of the bottom deck.

 

The motors are then bolted onto the mounts. The mounts were too close to each other so I had to drill a new hole for each mount in order to fit the motors on

 

Here is the rover with the motors on and some servos. You can also see that the power switch is bolted in place.

 

I made 2 polymorph mounts for the distance sensor. I attached polymorph to some servo horns to make them. The one on top is simply just a 90 degree mount for the sensor to bolt onto. The bottom one is angled towards the ground. This will allow the bottom sensor to detect obstacles that are on the ground or prevent the robot from falling

 

Finally I stole the compass from my AGV. I will probably end up making a polymorph compass mount for this robot so I can put this one back on my AGV. I also bolted the LCD in place.

 

I have a lot of more things to do obviously. Many packages are on the way. 

 

This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/rover-v2
2

Great work!

This  thing looks awesome.  I must say your projects are always nice and neat! can’t wait to see a video in action.

Keep up the good work!

3

Hmmm…

Not too shabby, son… Not too shabby at all.

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Clean and well organized. I

Clean and well organized. I like your polymorph mounts for the sensors. Did you not bolt them on the servo horn? (Can’t see any bolts)

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The polymorph was molded

The polymorph was molded around the servo horn, so no bolts are needed. 

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Great Job Patrick. I didn’t

Great Job Patrick. I didn’t expect to see this much progress such a short time after your blog post!


Keep up the good work.

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Neat and organized

The plexiglass lets you see everything, and those three levels give you alot of room. I like how you put those two sensors on the front and a LCD on the back. It all ready looks great!

Can’t wait to see more.

8

Very nice robot

I suppose it is designed for indoor environment. But more in detail what are your plans regarding the functions of the robot, for instance how will you use the compass data?

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Well the sensors will be

Well the sensors will be used to determine points of interests or points to avoid. I still have to develop how it will do this and what what is considered “interesting”. The compass will be used to make sure the robot is able to steer towards that interesting point or away from the points to avoid. If the code decides there is something interesting 30 degrees to the left (this comes from the servo position and what the sensor sees) then the robot will be able to navigate towards it using the compass. I plan on using it for some other things like aided remote control.

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I really like the two

I really like the two layered layout.  Great job! Keep it growing.