How to Make a Robot Car
Motorizing a car/robot frame and controlling it at will takes a number of readily available materials and only rudimentary knowledge of how systems work. Understanding robot movement, motors and gears are necessary, but a high level of technical skill is not.
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Things You'll Need
- Robot/car frame
- Programmable microcontroller
- 2 servos
- Receiver
- Bonding agent
- Rechargeable battery pack
Instructions
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1
Sketch out an idea for your robot car. The first step is always conception--perhaps there is a specific design you have in mind.
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2
Select your robot car frame. This will be dependent upon what design decisions you made previous. You can use chunks or full parts of existing RC cars, just their wheel bases or even modified bases for movement, such as miniature treads. Keep in mind that the type of transportation must correspond to the load your selected motor is capable of handling.
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3
Find a remote control for your RC robot. The degrees of movement the controller can handle may vary, and this is up to your judgment. Aim for at least two to four degrees of supported movement.
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4
Connect the servos to your frame. Your frame is the wheel base. Select the wheel base and drill holes on each side of the base to accommodate the servos.
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5
Use a bonding agent or any secure mechanism to place and hold the receiver on the frame wherever it is least obstrusive. Make sure it is in a place where the servos and battery can be reached and connected with it.
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6
Attach the rechargeable battery pack in a similar fashion as you did the receiver above. It should be within range of the receiver. The best bet for a battery for such a robot car would mimic RC car battery packs and consist of a group of cells comprised of either nickel metal hydride (ni-MH) or nickel cadmium (Ni-CD).
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7
Wire all the components--battery pack and servos--to the receiver. The manner in which the wiring of the servos and battery pack is arranged largely doesn't matter--just make sure the connections are securely made to each of the receiver's channels and that the battery pack is wired on a different end of the receiver from the two servos.
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8
Switch on the remote and test the movement and functions of your new robot car.
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