4-Wheeled Rover

This rover was made for a school passion project. It was built out of wood, and it was powered by Arduino programming.

4x 24 inch planks of Wood (I used cedar wood)

4x12 inch planks of wood

4x 6 inch planks of wood

1x Arduino mega board (Uno works too) and basic kit

3x breadboards

1x plastic sheet (I used a plastic container lid)

1x 9 volt Batteries

connecting wires (female to male wires and male to male wires)

Screws

Ultra-sonic sensor

wooden dowel

4 x wheels (I used lawnmower wheels)

glue, electrical tape

12 Volt power supply

Motor driver

2x 12 volt motors (variable rpm)

Cutting the wood:

- Measure and cut plank into 4 pieces that are 24 (2 feet) inches in length.

- Repeat with another plank but cut it into 12 inch(1 foot) lengths.

- Repeat the process, this time cutting the plank into four 6 inch pieces.

- Attach the 1ft and 2ft planks together using the pocket screw method. (you might need a pocket screwing tool). Using a pocket screw and glue will increases the strength of the rover by a great amount. If you just want to use glue or screw it in another way, that works as well but it might not be as strong.

- Do this twice for the bottom and the top.

- Next add the four 6 inch pieces of wood into the four corners of the rover. To do this, use some wood glue and just screw in the wood on the two sides of the corner (Look at how the screws are placed in the second image above).

- Add a platform by taking a 2' x1' plank and cutting the edges so the 6 inch pieces of wood won't stop the plank from fitting in. To cut it just measure the width of the 6 inch wood pieces and cut them accordingly. To attach the board you can just use some small screws and glue and screw it onto the board.

- Now Your frame is finally done!

- Gather up all of the materials you will need for this portion of the project (FM wires, M wires, 2x breadboards, motor driver, 2x 12v motors, power module).

- Wire up the materials into the setup illustrated in the above diagram.

Tip- If you do not have enough ports to plug in the wires, connect the desired ports to a breadboard with small M wires, This will enable you to plug in as many ports as you want.

- Follow the diagram above to wire up the sensor to the rover.

- This sensor will enable the rover to sense an obstacle, and this sensor will tell the rover where to go.

Here is the code for the motors, in order to get the AF motors you must go to https://github.com/adafruit/Adafruit-Motor-Shield-library then download them as a zip file.

Here is a link to the code:

https://create.arduino.cc/projecthub/jpash/rover-obstacle-avoiding-code-cebdee

- This part of the rover really depends on what kind of motor you use and what type of wheel you use. I used some lawn mower wheels, but you can get wheels for this specific kind of project on Amazon for around $40.00. I drilled a hole in a dowel then attached that dowel into the motor axle. The dowel is specific for the size of the lawn mower wheel, so it was easy to attach the wheels.

Your rover is now assembled! Now it is time to upload your code to the Arduino and try it out! Have fun!