Well, I finally have gotten around to posting about my current project, Sagar! (The name might be changed if i come up with a better one) Basically, in an effort to better understand the technology I use at my job in the Navy, I am building a robot from scratch. My hope is in the end to have a robot that can be driven remotely, or drive itself with the aid of a GPS and inertial navigation system as well as avoid obstacles and reroute around them. I want it to be able to ‘record’ a route while being driven remotely, then be able to ‘replay’ the path without any assistance.

The base chassis is a Lynx-motion 4WD rover body. I have just finished building my own motor-controller that has feedback from the motors. This allows for commands to be given in speed rather then in power and it is able to track how far the robot has traveled; something most commercial products (like the Sabertooth) cannot do. The motor controller also monitors battery voltage and current, and will override commands given to it if the battery current gets too high.

It is powered by 2 Li-Ion packs i built myself; has GPS, 3 axis compass, Xbee 900Mhz radio and an Axon as the main MCU. Eventually it will have an array of ultrasonic range finders for obstacle avoidance.

More to come.

Be sure to check out all the pictures on the Photos page.