Introduction: How to Make an Obstacles Avoiding Robot- Arduino Style

By www.facebook.com/totallykyleryan
About: I'm 17. I enjoy making cool stuff, and promoting the "maker" community. Vote for my space balloon in the hurricane laser contest and hands on learning!!

You've always wanted to make one of those cool robots that can basically avoid any object. Yet you didn't have enough money to buy one of those really expensive ones, with already cut parts where all the materials where there for you. If you're like me you like to use some parts you already have around, like scrap metal and plastic. This is the project for you.

Check out my new project on sending a balloon into space!!
https://www.instructables.com/id/My-Space-Balloon-Project-Stratohab-Success-High/

Step 1: Get the Materials

Arduino- which you can get at the maker shed
http://www.makershed.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MKSP4

Then you'll need a Ping UltraSonic Sensor which you'll find at most radioshack stores...
http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2909789

A base and scrap metal or plastic that you have lying around.

Some extra wires.

Some cheap mounting tape from Walgreens or the dollar store.

Two Futaba S3003 servos.

Some lego wheels -4 of them ......or other small wheels.

Also a rechargeable battery. (The only reason is that the servos use a lot of energy.

Now your all set to go!

Step 2: Making Your Servos Move 360 Degrees

So you have your servo's great! Now twist the the external spoked plastic thing.... Wow! It only goes 180 degrees what are we going to do about that?

We're gonna make it move all of the way around....

Basically changing some of the mechanics inside it.
Follow this tutorial and get your servo to go all of the way around and you can go to the next step!

Hacking Some Servos

This should give you two perfectly, well yea, they move all the way around.

Step 3: Putting It All Together

Use some of the very sticky mounting tape and put it onto the piece of metal, like this. Also do this to the lego wheels.

Then attach the (giant) in my case battery to the top of the metal. Then place the Ping sensor into a piece of pcb and make it with the end of the servo you cut off and now you have most of it done.

Then attach the Arduino on top of the battery. For a little size comparison here is how large this robot should be....

Step 4: Attach the Electronics.

Simple put if you would like to put a breadboard or circuit board on top to make this easier.

1. Attach both servo red wires (+) to (+) on arduino.
2. Attach both servo black wires (-) to GND on arduino.
3. Attach a wire you can solder on to the PING sensor, that is positive to positive on arduino.
4. Then the negative to the negative.
5. The signal wire on the ping goes to digital 7 on arduino.
6. The left servo white wire goes to 5 and right servo white wire goes to 6.

Then upload to arduino using the Arduino environment which you can find info on here this code.
arduino.cc

Thanks you to the person who made his code here it is..

http://www.obscurereality.org/?p=45

YOU will also need to get the servo library whoch can be found here...
arduino.cc also

Thanks you for viewing this instructable and i hope some of you get to make this cool robot..