The Rover Project Begins
(11/24/2009)
Rover Concept
Larry and I wanted to put together an interesting test project that would demonstrate some of the capabilities of the Rabbit device.
- Fast embedded device with a small footprint
- Low overhead costs
- Easy TCP/IP and webserver
- Easy digital I/O
- Easy serial control
Step 1 – Setting up our Requirements
I have always been very impressed with NASA’s two Mars rovers which combine a lot of the technologies Rabbit is good at. With that in mind, a rover seems like a fun project and would be a useful testbed project that allows us to demonstrate what the Rabbit can do.
The most basic requirements of the rover will be:
- Mobility
- Remote or autonomous control
- Wireless Networking to allow data to be passed to and from a remote location
- Low total cost (You always have to consider cost in a design and today’s economy makes this even more important.)
As we move forward with the project, we can continue to add functionality like data collection from a sensor package. We are intentionally leaving specifics like which sensor we might add or which wireless networking we might use undetermined. The Rabbit should be able to handle these and we already have support for both Wi-Fi and ZigBee ready if we make a decision either way.
Step 2 – Picking a Chassis and Motors on a Budget
The next phase of any design process should be research. What chassis will meet my needs and how much will we have to pay for it. After looking at several robot technology sites, the first thing you will notice is how bad engineers are at making web sites. Many of the robotics retailers had terrible web sites without any information.
Some of the robot kits immediately eliminated themselves because we could not easily navigate their site:
- Jameco Electronics – Once you pick “Robot Kits” you got lost in a sea of text without much to point you in the right direction.
- The Robot Store – If you pick ‘Robot Kits‘ and ‘Advanced Robot Kits‘ you actually get a blank page.
Others were eliminated because of the cost:
At this point I was seriously considering tearing down an RC car or using the Lego Mindstorms robotics kit just based on cost. I already have the Lego kit and it is a breeze to use, but while it is sophisticated it wouldn’t provide the rover’s target audience with the impression that the rover is a serious project.
That is when I discovered the LynxMotion web site. They have a four-wheel drive robot with a chassis and electronics that looked very similar to our rover concept. Their web site was easy to navigate, it included videos of the robots in action, and they also offered a different versions of the kit without electronics. Considering that all we needed was a chassis with some motors and tires that fit our needs perfectly at a good price point.
I sent them an e-mail asking for some details about the kit and got a response within two days that answered the question. (It might be a personal bias, but I won’t buy anything from a company that doesn’t respond to my e-mails.)
After conferring with Larry, we ordered this kit as our chassis.
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