Controllable Box Robot With Scooper

This is a simple robot that has various functions, including movement and an accessory forklift at the front. It is a simple, but effective design, and can be easily controlled by a controller via bluetooth.

Components :

• Servos
• Motors
• Arduino board + sensor shield
• Battery pack
• Batteries
• Bluetooth receiver
• Connector wire
• Wheels

Materials :

• MDF wood material for robot body
• 3D printed mounts
• wood glue, hot glue, and/or super glue
• A ruler and/or Caliper
• 
  

Devices Needed :

• 3D printer
• Laser Cutter

Designing

To hold the components that you have, you need to create a chassis. I created the box using adobe illustrator, which I found the easiest. Once completing it, I imported the design into fusion to verify if all the parts fit together properly. To start off, it is best to think about what your robot is going to look like, and make simple shapes in adobe. Add some detail, and once you are finished with the layout we now have to add grooves. These can be added either by using https://en.makercase.com/#/ or by creating it yourself! Make sure all the grooves align and fit by importing the adobe file into fusion. It helps to design a board where you can mount your components easily, allowing for easy, clean, and neat configuration within your robot.

Cutting

To cut your design, you will need a laser cutter. I would personally recommend MDF since it was the easiest to work with, but other types of wood will also work. Once your parts are cut out, simply use wood glue to secure all the sides together, except for the top since the interior still has to be accessed.

Now that we have the chassis of our robot completed, we now turn our attention to the inside. The wiring diagram shows all the connections required.

Make sure Arduino and sensor shield are mounted together, and are to the motor controller. Then, wire the motor controller to the battery so everything receives power. The Bluetooth module is then connected to the Arduino.

Both motors are connected to either side of the motor controller respectively (you may have to solder the wires to the motor, then simply screw into motor controller)

In order to add functionality to your robot, we must code its movement and other abilities. The code provided below is what I used for my robot, and you can use it if you'd like.

Once you are finished with wiring your components, and your robot chassis is put together, you can now start mounting everything.

Motors are mounted to the open square near the back, and using a motor mount they can be screwed into the base of the chassis.

The components can be mounted onto the component board, and then set into the chassis. Your choice to screw it in or not, since it really doesn't effect much.

Now that the components and the robot chassis are together, now just upload the code to the Arduino.

As you can see at the front of my robot, I 3D printed a scoop for my vehicle to lift objects. You can create your own or use the one I created. (file attached below)

In order to mount the scoop, you must mount the servos to the upper square holes on the robot chassis. Once they are glued or screwed in, glue the ends of the servo to the rods in order to create the lift mechanism. Super glue is recommended since I found hot glue doesn't stick well to 3D printed parts.

You now have a robot that is fully functional with movement, and can lift things!!!.

Things I would of added if I had more time would include a roof for the robot, and figure out why the servos are so loud when moving the scooper