S.P.E.A.R v2 6WD - Self Powered Electric Agile Robot

Let's Make Robots Robots
1

Update 1:

 

Its been almost a year since I post v1 of my robot. Wow! After being lost in RC world of airplanes, quadcopters and helis for a year I finally managed to work on my robot again! What has been redone / added for v2:

  • True 6 WD locomotion, all wheels are being driven by 3 brushed motors.
  • 3x 20A brushed ESC's 
  • 5Ah 2s LiPo
  • 2.4 Ghz RC through arduino.

Writing the code for the RC was a nightmare! I spend the whole night writing code that would noticeably lag the arduino chip, deleting whole code and starting again. After the second video was done I rewrote the whole logic of driving the motors again, and I am not done yet! Who would have thought there will be so many "underwater stones" in doing this!

To come are:

  • 2x sonic range finders for autonomous and semi-autonomous drive
  • 2x temperature sensors for the motors (I almost fried one of the motors after driving for 20 min for the video)
  • LED stripes just for looks and night drive =)
  • Brake LEDs, steering LEDs
  • Remove the wiring mess and make nice and sleek connections

What not-so-hard-to-add features could I add? Any suggestions?

ps. Compare the two videos in terms of speed and power :D Poor v1 looks very bad compared to his bigger brother v2 :( 

 

 


 

 

 

Original post:

Introducing my first working arduino robot. Based on an old RC car I bought off my friend ;) It had IR range finder that I burned so I decided to make IR remote control for now to test it driving capabilities. Note that on the video the motors only get 1A out of maximal 5A. I had only two L293D motor drivers at the moment. Because of that it can only go forward and backward for now. 

Currently the robot has arduino Duemilanove with two L293D on board. IR detector for remote cotrol and a buzzer for sound notifications when the command from the TV remote was successfully received. You can change the speed of the robot by clicking volume up/down on the remote.

Confirmed future features / imporevemts:

  • New 5000 LiPo battery for more power 
  • Five L293 motor driver or two ESC for 70W of power or 5A per motor. The robot will be able to rotate / turn. 
  • 2.4Ghz radio remote control. With above = unlimited fun and nice videos ;) 
  • IR and/or sonic range finders for autonomous drive and supported remote control.
  • Many more

Thats for the near future.

Thanks everyone on this site for sharing information and especially I want to thank everyone helping me in my thread here: https://www.robotshop.com/letsmakerobots/node/26220. 

just rc for now

  • Actuators / output devices: 3x DC motors
  • Control method: 2.4 Ghz
  • CPU: Arduino Duemilanove
  • Power source: 5Ah 2s LiPo
  • Programming language: Arduino, C
  • Target environment: indoor, outdoor
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://community.robotshop.com/robots/show/s-p-e-a-r-v2-6wd-self-powered-electric-agile-robot
2

nicely done!! conradulations

nicely done!! conradulations on your first robot!

3

Thanks

Thanks

4

Nice wheels man! Look

Nice wheels man! Look forward to your progress

5

Great project my friend.

Great project my friend. It’s always apleasure for me to see robots made with cars and you did well. Congrad :slight_smile:

BTW did you have to use an ESC for your motor yet?

6

Thank you. In fact, I will

Thank you. In fact, I will ONLY use RC cars (maybe planes later) for my future robots as I want also to be able to control all my robots via radio remote to test its driving capabilities and to have some fun =)

Unfortunately Hobbyking has brushed ESC out of stock so I cant order not only the ESC but also everything else - LiPos, charger, remote tx and rx, cables etc. There is much more to come for the robot, in the meantime I will experiment with another RC car that has conventional steering.

Update. Hobbyking brushed ESC 20A costs 5$ and as I said out of stock now. Ebay Germany has none brushed with the cheapest 20A ESC from China for 15USD. No comments.

7

Hey no wonder that they are

Hey no wonder that they are out of stock being at such a low price… BTW the remote I saw on one comment looks good too :slight_smile: I think I’m gona get one too and play with RCs as well.  Ok then take care and hoping you’ll get your parts soon.

Oh BTW how did you managed to have it work with your tv remote?

8

It was very easy. Read there

It was very easy. Read there articles:

http://luckylarry.co.uk/arduino-projects/arduino-redefining-the-tv-remote/

http://tronixstuff.wordpress.com/2011/03/30/tutorial-arduino-and-infra-red-control/

http://www.ladyada.net/learn/sensors/ir.html

You just connect the IR detector to arduino (cost 2$ or so) and with the code I stole somewhere (should be in the articels) you read the values of the buttons pressed and arduino shows you that values in hex. For example I had 0x20DF22DD for “channel up”. Very easy, really.

9

Great! Thanks for the info,

Great! Thanks for the info, I will check this out :slight_smile:

10

Now I use 3x 20A ESC’s :smiley:

Now I use 3x 20A  ESC’s :smiley: