Tyco RC Arduino Robot

Wanted to make your own robot but couldn't afford the fancy H-Bridge IC's or etch your own PCB? Want a quick and dirty method of making your own wheeled robot? Then you're in luck, but if you want to make your own wheeled robot AND have a quick and dirty wireless controller for anything then you're REALLY in luck.

Required Items:
1 Tyco RC Air Rebound
2 Philips Screw Drivers one smaller than the other one, I don't know the sizes of the ones I used.
1 Arduino Uno
1 Soldering Iron
Plasticard (Not used, but will be used in an update)

Step 1 : Removing Power

Switch the RC Car off and remove the battery by flipping it over (Switch facing down) and rotating the latches, and flipping the cover down. (If the car has already been switched off, or the battery removed, proceed straight to step 2)

Comments

[bill2009]

very nice. And well explained. You should have a look at the "makey" robot code, some of the sketches for it could give you ideas. Consider some ping-type sensors for obstacle avoidance.

How fast will it go?

[Dominion-Network]

Before I slowed the robot down, it would go so fast it'd smash into everything and do a couple of flips, so obviously I had to slow it down, and I'm already a head of you regarding the ping sensors / other upgrade options as I'm currently working on converting the robot base into a line-following robot.

[bill2009]

LOL on the speed. I ask about that because I built my own carbot as a wall-following racer and I was thinking maybe we could hold a competition: Agree on a track, post videos and times. http://arduino.cc/forum/index.php/topic,8756.0.html

i'd be interested in the line following upgrade - i have not done that.

[Dominion-Network]

I checked out the link you posted, looks pretty good, you should reverse engineer it and show everyone how you put it together.

[mycroftxxx]

Any chance we could see a video of your bot in action?

[Dominion-Network]

Here's the video, I apologise for the crappy quality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9kC4_-FFjE

[Dominion-Network]

I've got some demo software worked out, I'll be controlling the robot via USB on my laptop, but the current state of the robot has a horrible (Almost impossible) turning circle due to the big green wheel.

[Dominion-Network]

I'm currently working on some code that will allow me to control the robot from my pc, unless I 'program' a path for the bot to follow for demo purposes.

[Robot Lover]

Instead of going to the trouble of making a motor controller and all that jazz, why not just take a few 5 volt relays and connect them to the remote control, then all you have to do is power the relays from the arduino pins, and you dont need to mount your arduino to the robot!

[Dominion-Network]

Then it'd still be an RC car and not a robot, I have plans to upgrade this in the future with a ping sensor and / or IR distance finder / Line Follower upgrade.