Self Navigating Vacuum Cleaner

Hello, I am Manu, a student of 1MCT at Howest in Kortrijk. For my project at the end of the first year, I chose to make a self-driving vacuum cleaner with object detection. In this Instructable, I will explain all the steps on how I made this vacuum cleaner. I made this so that my mom (or I, if she asks me) no longer has to vacuum because no one really enjoys doing that.

Raspberry Pi 4

• Price: €66.89
• Function: Controls the entire system
• Links: Amazon, Kiwi Electronics

Breadboard

• Price: €3.99
• Function: Prototyping circuits
• Links: Amazon

Jumper cables

• Price: €18.94
• Function: Connects components
• Links: Amazon

HC-SR04

• Price: €8.68
• Function: Measures distances
• Links: Amazon

Car vacuum cleaner

• Price: €12.98
• Function: Used for the motor
• Links: Amazon

Furniture casters

• Price: €10.21
• Function: Used as front wheel
• Links: Amazon

Zeee 3S LiPo Battery 11.1V 25C 1300mAh

• Price: €21.00
• Function: Powers HC-SR04, vacuum motor, and motors
• Links: Amazon

Push switches

• Price: €6.99
• Function: Used to turn Pi on and off
• Links: Amazon

LiPo battery charger

• Price: €16.34
• Function: To charge the LiPo battery
• Links: Amazon

Toggle switch

• Price: €7.90
• Function: To turn the battery on and off
• Links: Amazon

L298N driver module

• Price: €14.99
• Function: Motors, wheels, and driver for the vacuum cleaner
• Links: Amazon

DC buck converter

• Price: €3.00
• Function: Steps down 12V to 5V
• Links: TinyTronics

HW-201 Infrared module

• Price: €1.50
• Function: Infrared obstacle avoidance module
• Links: Otronic

After several attempts, I have settled on this design for 3D printing. I created these in Tinkercad, which is an online program that is very easy to learn in just a few minutes. And I was fortunate that a colleague of my father was kind enough to 3D print them for me.

Connect the Battery to the 12V Rail:

• Attach the positive (+) and negative (-) terminals of the battery to the 12V rail. This rail will power the vacuum motor.
• Also connect a ground from the Raspberry Pi to the ground of the rail to establish a common ground.

Install the DC Buck Converter on the 12V Rail:

• Set the DC buck converter to output a maximum of 5V (Youtube tutorial).
• Connect the converter's input (+) to the 12V rail's positive terminal and the input (-) to the negative terminal.

Create the 5V Rail:

• Connect the converter's output (+) and (-) to another rail to create the 5V rail.
• Connect the (-) of both rails together to establish a common ground.

Connect Power Button to Raspberry Pi:

• Wire an on/off button to GPIO3 and ground of the Raspberry Pi (Youtube tutorial).

Connect MOSFET Module:

• Secure wires to the GND and Vin of the MOSFET module and connect these to the (-) and (+) of the 12V rail.
• Connect V- and V+ of the MOSFET module to the (-) and (+) terminals of the vacuum motor.µ

Wire HC-SR04 Sensors:

• Connect the power (5V) and ground of all three HC-SR04 sensors to the respective terminals on the rail.
• Connect both the trig and echo pins of each HC-SR04 sensor to GPIO pins on the Raspberry Pi.

Install Infrared Sensor:

• Connect VCC to the 3.3V pin of the Raspberry Pi and ground to a ground terminal.
• Connect the OUT pin of the infrared sensor to a GPIO pin.

Integrate RFID Module:

• Connect the MISO and MOSI pins of the RFID module.
• Connect the 3.3V pin of the RFID module to the respective pin on the Raspberry Pi and ground to a ground terminal.

Connect H-Bridge Module:

• On the H-Bridge module, connect a wire from the block with three openings to 5V and another wire to ground in the middle opening.
• Connect each motor to the outer blocks with two openings on the H-Bridge module.

Connect Motors to H-Bridge:

• Connect the respective IN pins to GPIO pins ensuring motors rotate in both directions.

I have added the PDFs of the schematics that I created in Fritzing. These should help you to understand the steps better and build the right circuit.

This is de dump file for my database and a picture of the EER

Here is the link to the GitHub project containing all the information about the Pi image setup for production, as well as all the code required for the vacuum to operate.

https://github.com/howest-mct/2023-2024-projectone-mct-VandendriesscheManu