For the first time, our robotic lawnmower project has mobility and a modicum of intelligence. Two bump sensors dictate which way the robot should turn on impact with an obstacle. It's still early days.
The robot is powered by 4 AA cells via a boost regulator that gives us a constant 5V. An Arduino does the thinking and drives 2 continuous rotation servos.
We also did a test today on the blades and motor. Bottom line - it works well when there's not much grass to cut but the tiny motor soon gets bogged down and the blades lose speed. We're going to need a MUCH more powerful motor and that will mean we need to re-think the power source for the whole robot.
hello,
ReplyDeletemy robotmower mainboard is broken,
so I'm thinking to build my own one because I can't buy the original anymore.
Any ideas or plans that I can use to make him work again?
Thanks in advace
gunthervde@hotmail.com
Hi Gunthervde
ReplyDeleteGood question! Not knowing what you've got makes it hard for me to make many suggestions - and not knowing your skill-set.
We're using an Arduino (actually a Seeeduino clone) as the brains of the operation. I can recommend using Arduino because it's pretty accessible to folks like me without advanced software and hardware experience.
Alternatively, have you tried ebay or similar sites to try to pick up another robotmower for spares?
hth
Marcel
Motor-wise I'd suggest looking at a hobby-grade brushless motor and ESC, they've come down so much in price and the ESC is super easy to interface to the Arduino
ReplyDeleteThanks for the sugestion Jim. We've currently got larger DC motor in place are are about to give it a first try. I'll post when there's news.
ReplyDelete