Robotic Rover with Visual Assistance
The primary objective of this project was to design and implement a robotic arm mounted on a rover that can be wirelessly controlled with the aid of a companion mobile app and a camera. This rover would be used to access locations humans can’t, and the robotic arm would be used to perform required tasks. The end effector of the robotic arm is designed to be modular and can be changed to perform specific tasks as required. A Raspberry Pi camera was also installed, to aid the user with remote operations.
Custom Designed and Fabricated PCB
The system was controlled with the help of an Arduino Mega board, which communicated with an Android smartphone over Bluetooth. We used a LiPo battery to provide the required current for the servos and stepper motors. We designed a PCB on Altium, and fabricated it ourselves, using a photo etching method.
3D Printed Mecanum Wheels
For the rover, we decided to use stepper motors along with mecanum wheels, as they would allow for enhanced maneuverability.
Two types of servomotors were used for the robotic arm: the bottom 3 joints had heavier, more robust servos, while the last 3 joints had lightweight, lower torque servos.
Model of the Robotic Rover and its 6 DoF Robotic Arm
We designed the physical model of the robotic rover on Solidworks, with 3D printing being the desired manufacturing method. The rover had slots for ventilation and cooling for the stepper motors, and to reduce the weight of the skeleton. The internal volume was carefully configured to house all the required electronic components, and the top had a facility to mount a 6 DoF Robotic Arm.
The end effector of the robotic arm was designed to be modular, so it could be modified with different appendages, such as a drill, screwdriver, etc...