Hi all,
I’m trying to build a robot with the smallest possible form factor.
Based on this could someone advise whether the following combination of driver/motor is a good solution?
They’ll be used on a desk and will behave in a swarm like behaviour using Bluetooth communication.
3VDC 790rpm 0.005kg-cm Planetary Gear Pager Motor
Romeo BLE Mini Microcontroller
Thanks in advance,
Charles
In terms of size, the BLE is far from the smallest. You might find the pager motors a bit underpowered for that as well, after you add a battery etc.
Consider two of these positioned one behind the other so the shafts are aligned:
robotshop.com/en/gm23-tiny-g … shaft.html
You can likely create a 3D printed wheel and use an O-ring for traction.
You’ll need a lot of sensors.
Thanks for the input, the Romeo includes a microcontroller, motor and BT module all in one package.
If it isn’t the smallest, can you recommend an alternative?
As for the sensors, I was going down the OpenCV & webcam route for the brains wich would send commands to each bot accordingly. Happy to hear your thoughts on this.
The “smallest” approach would of course be custom. The screw terminals are large, and you might not need as many pins as are broken out.
However, this can most certainly suit your application and there is no need to put in the extra effort to create an entirely custom board just to make it smaller.
The camera (from above) approach with markers on each robot is a great idea.
Fantastic, thanks for your help 
