Sputnik - IR / Unltrasonic autonomous vehicle
Introduction
So I've trying now for a few weeks to have my rock crawler, named Sputnik, be autonomous. The goal is that it should be able to avoide any objects on its path, and while looking around, it should record data on a SD card such as Temperature, Humidity, Light Intensity, Atmosphere Pressure (more to come).
Second is that it can overrided to be manually operated with xbee and a logitech joystick, directly from my mackbook.
Done so far
The structure is finaly finished, it took me a long time to finish the Rock Crawler mainly because of having the wrong tools and not enough time. Once the structure was finished I moved on to the electrical componants and programming part of it. I am completly new to Arduino, so I spend lots of time looking around on the web on what could be done and how.
The structure is finished, the crawler is done, and a plexiglass body is fixed on top, housing all my elelctronics. I will publish pictures later.
Material
From Tower Hobbies
- DuraTrax Sprint Electronic Speed Control $29.99 (esc for brushless motor)
- Venom Fireball Rock Crawler Motor 5 $19.99 (brushless motor)
- Venom Creeper Competition Rock Crawler Kit Anodized Red $143.99 (body structure)
- Venom NiMH 6-Cell 7.2V 3000mAh Stick Universal Plug $20.99 (battery for the motor and steering servo)
- Associated S1903MG Servo w/Metal Gears $17.99
From Adafruit
- Adafruit Data logging shield for Arduino (v1.0) [ID:243] = $19.50
- Medium 6V 2W Solar panel (2.0 Watt) [ID:200] = $25.00
- Lithium Ion Polymer Battery - 3.7v 1300mAh[ID:258] = $12.00
- TMP36 - Analog Temperature sensor (TMP36) [ID:165] = $4.00
- Photo cell (CdS photoresistor)[ID:161] = $1.00
- 2x XBee Module - Series 01 (XB24-AWI-001) [ID:128] = $46.00
- USB FTDI TTL-232 cable (TTL-232R 3.3V) [ID:70] = $20.00
Total : $366.45 lots of these componants can be found around depending on your project
Inspiriation and Links
- http://principialabs.com/arduino-python-4-axis-servo-control/
- http://www.instructables.com/id/Arduino-4wd-robot-with-ping-sensor-J-Bot/?ALLSTEPS
- http://www.ladyada.net/make/logshield/
Pictures... so far...
Fooling around with Fritzing (http://fritzing.org/)
Navigates around in it's environment and records weather conditions
- Control method: autonomous, XBee
- CPU: Arduino
- Power source: 7.2, Solar, 5.5
- Sensors / input devices: Sharp GP2Y0A21YK IR Sensor, Maxbotix Ultrasonic Rangefinder LV-EZ1
- Target environment: indoor, outdoor