"Baratinha" My First Robot

Here goes my first attempt of making a robot, i used an arduino and a motor shield, with one servo for steering, and a standard dc motor for traction.

I didn´t have any cool sensors like infrared or ultrasonic at the moment, so i used two micro-switchs to be like bug sensors.. and i called it "baratinha", a portuguese word for "little cockroach".

It´s very basic (i know) and a bit dumb, the sensors doesn´t work as i would like to, in real obstacules it bumps and doesn´t press the micro switch, but anyway, it´s my first baby and i wanted to share with you :]

The main purpose here was to build something, understand how some materials work like hot glue, and program an interaction system.

I thought this was a closed project... i was wrong!! :]

I decided to change the structure and the geometry of the chassis.

Now the gravity center is lower wich performs more stability.

i´ve decided to remove the other power switchs and put this smaller ones, and one below the other, so that i can switch on all the system at once.

And now with the ultrasonic sensor :)

i´m programming the navigation system, and it´s being another challenge for me! But i´m having fun with it!!

i´ll be out for one week so see you guys soon ;)

just a final note: i thought that if i create a blog post and assign it to my robot project it would appear in this page.. but is was not.. so, i´ll update only this page from now on..

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1 week later.. :)

I´m closing this project because the motor i´m using is very weak and it doens´t have the strengh to run with all that stuff. I´ll make a similar one with a strong motor and bigger wheels and with a better understanding of robot design!

It´s was a good way to start and i learned a lot in hand crafts, physical construction, materials, and programming. :)

I started this robot without any planning at all, i was just adding stuff and more stuff, and when a problem was solved, another problem was created, so this resulted in a large amount of time consuming.. it was like, add something here, add something there, now i don´t like this here so let´s change it.. now i must fix this because i´m thinking in a new way of doing it... so it was like a never ending project  :)