Esghati: a Robot Made From Garbage

Esghati is a very simple robot based on ESP32-CAM and Arduino nano. I made it for my students in school so they can make their own and figured it could be fun to share it with other kids around the world. It's super cheap, super easy and super educational.

The project is made in a way that with each step you learn to make an individual gadget. First you learn to make a powerbank, next step you add ESP32-CAM as a camera with face recognition and then you add moving mechanism and a body to make it a robot.

So how does it work? You don't need a controller for this robot, just your phone or laptop or anything with web browser on it. You connect to the Esghati's wifi with any device and you can see through its camera and control it with a browser. it also has face recognition features!

I wanted to show my students that cool stuff are created by passion and things can be done without spending money on fancy robotic parts, also I wanted an equal competition platform for all of them no matter their family wealth. So all the body parts are straight from garbage.

body parts are not anything special, just some garbage I've had lying around. You can use your imagination for your robot's body. It can be a broken toy, or a hand made cardboard robot or something totally irrelevant like mine. I used four broken LED lamps and an old wifi router shell for the body.

The Electrical Parts Are:

1x ESP32-CAM

1x Arduino Nano (Purchase USB Cable According to your Module)

2x Lithium ion Battery 18650 3.7V at least 2000 mAh

2x Female Pin Header 2.54mm 2 Row 40 Pin Right Angle

1x FT232RL Mini USB to TTL Serial Converter Adapter Module 3.3V/5.5V

1x ON/OFF Switch

1x Powerbank Module with 2 USB Outputs

1x Male USB to USB Cable (Read the article before purchasing)

2x MG996R 360 Degree Servo (Metal Gearbox is Recommended)

Some wire

Tools:

1. Drill with 3mm Bits
2. Mini Angle Grinder or Hacksaw
3. Soldering Iron
4. Soldering Wire and Oil
5. Screw Drivers
6. Hot Glue Gun
7. Ruler
8. Metal Scissors
9. Cutter

I'll get you through what I did for the Esghati's body in case you want to make the exact robot.

Wheels:

First we cut two LED lamps with the same size right from behind the LED PCB. You should end up with something like the pics. Then connect the servo handles right in the middle of the LED PCB. Disconnect the bulb from the PCB section and start gluing all around the corner of the PCB from the inside just for extra protection. Set them aside to dry and go to the next step.

Base:

The base is made from an old broken wifi router so grab a screw driver and open the router and remove all the electronics. I left the antenna intact cause it looks cool but you can remove it if you want. Now you need to choose a side of your router for the front section of your robot. Once you chosen a side, start measuring the servos and based on the measurements start cutting both front sides of router. Now install the servos in the router as shown in the pics. You can use hot glue or the screws that come with the servos, needless to say screws are always are recommended.

You may wanna install the wheels later cause it's easier to install other parts without wheels. I connected them for demonstration purposes.

Wiring:

The wiring is super easy, first connect the batteries together in parallel and then connect the negative side to the powerbank's negative. Then connect their positive sides together with an on/off switch in the middle.

Montage:

Now its time to connect our powerbank to the chassis. First carefully measure the powerbank module ports and make some holes on any side of body that fits them then glue the batteries and the module to the chassis. I personally connected them to the top front of the robot. Then measure the on/off switch and make a place for it on the chassis. It's recommended that you glue all the components to one side of the chassis so you can continue the rest of the montage with ease.

At last make sure your powerbank battery level indicator is visible through the chassis whether its an LED or LCD indicator. Now you can proceed to the next step.

We need a bigger light bulb and a smaller one for the upper body. Remove the light bulb from the big bulb and cut the cap enough to insert a second smaller cap into it as shown in pics. Now you can either cut or drill the bottom of the smaller light bulb cap so the wires can get trough. You can glue both parts together end to end but don't connect them to chassis yet.

Grab a piece of garbage sheet metal and make a T stand with at least 12cm of length and 3.5 cm wide. Then bend the bottom part of the T stand according to the base of your smaller light bulb and screw it on the top side of the small light bulb.

Next connect the remaining light bulb bodies from the wheels to the top section of the T stand for the robot eyes.

At last cut the bulb from the big light bulb from the base in half and glue its bottom side to the chassis in a way that you can mount the upper body on it. I did this so I can remove the upper body anytime I want and also it fits firmly on the chassis. But still don't connect the upper body to chassis.

Now we need two 8 rows from the Female Pin Header 2.54mm 2 Row 40 Pin Right Angle to mount the ESP32-CAM on the T stand. First connect the inner row of pin headers to the module in a way that the pins point to each other. Then glue the outer pins on the T stand without disturbing the inner pins as we need them to connect to the module.

Once the glue is set you can start wiring the electronics.

Here you need to decide if you want to use the USB ports for powering the entire systems or you want to solder the power wires directly to the USB pins on the powerbank PCB. I soldered the wires to PCB cause it's cleaner and you also can use the extra USB ports for attaching other electronics or even charge some phones and gadgets.

The arduino fits into the wifi router chassis and doesn't need and special stand, just don't solder the wires directly to it; use pin headers. Now that everything is connected we can proceed to the next step.

I developed Esghati's platform based on this project and added some more features. I uploaded the source code for the project in GitHub, click here to redirect.

ESP32-CAM:

First you need to install ESP32 version 1.0.4 from your boards manager. Then install all the missing libraries. Connect your board to USB to TTL Converter. Connect the GPIO0 to GND to enable boot mode. Choose AI Thinker ESP32-CAM board from tools and then choose Huge APP as your Partition Scheme. At last enter wifi credentials, select your COM port and start uploading the sketch.

Note: You may get errors like guru meditation or brownout detector was triggered. They are normally caused by poor quality cable connections or power shortage. In order to get rid of the errors connect the board to external power source and make sure you have good connection. Also it's very important that you connect the ground wire to your system and the power source.

Note: Its recommended that you use the GND pin next to 5V pin for powering the module.

Now you can test your module, exit the boot mode and restart the module. Then connect to your ESP32-CAM with your phone or laptop and enter 192.168.4.1 in your chrome browser. You should see the control panel just like the picture. The light and the face recognition features can be tested right away.

Arduino Nano:

First install all the libraries and select arduino nano from the boards manager. Select COM and click upload. If you had problem with uploading mess around with processor types. I can program my arduino nanos when the processor is set to ATmega328P Old Bootloader.

Now you can attach the wheels to the frame, two on the servos and one in the back for keeping the balance. Now we have finished the project!

Enjoy your robot. Congratulations!