Crabe

Hello all! This is my first robot project, and I'm super excited about it. Meet Crabe (a vikingish word for "Crab"). He's not much to look at now, but it's a work in progress. For starters, he uses an Arduino Uno with a SeeedStudio motor shield (ver. 1.2). I rigged up a RC car battery as my power source, wich has worked wonderfully so far. For the base, I went with a morphibian rc car for kids; which is about 8 inches long and uses a dual motor system (this makes it essentially a SHR). 

Ive owned the arduino for nearly a year, but ive been very slow to learning it, and just hadnt had any fun. Then I foudn this site, where programming can be used to make fun little guys and i fell in love!

What Ive done so far....

-I've torn up the RC body and rigged in a paddle switch in the rear. It adds a fun look, easy power access and has an LED built in. 

-By experimenting with examply codes, I've gotten the movement working (i.e. he understands left, right, forward etc.)

-Did some IR range finding tests... his "eyes" will be the first thing I upgrade for sure lol. 

-I own a servo but Im currently in the process of learning to command it through the Arduino.

THE GOAL:

-create an expandable robot platform

-make Crabe a fun lil guy to play with my cat

-future ideas include line following, light chaser, claws and use micro-servos to add "personality" (moving parts etc.)

Heres a better shot fo the modded body:

Late Night Progress....6/11/2014

So after some minor creativity I set to clean up Crabe's chassis a bit, if for nothing else, then to make it look better and have wires be easier to locate. Heres the new deal:

I also attempted to make a "Shell" like a Hermit Crabs.... but it just looked like a Dunce cap and I hated it lol. oh well, off to find a more suitable cover!