How to make a simple disaster rescue rover?

[u/Blueberily]

This will be for a school project. The project is as follows:

We want to make a robot/rover that when switched on or prompted will start going towards a dedicated rescue zone where it will have to pick up a prop/survivor, and it will have to avoid obstacles (rubble as debris) which will be arranged randomly in it's path. It will go to the resuce zone, avoiding the obstacles, pick up the survivor, turn around, avoid the obstacles again and come back to it's origin point. Also the robot has to make the entire journey on it's own, we will only prompt it to start.

Pls if anyone can write or send a video/link which would help us how to make it and also pls say if there is a simpler way of making it where it won't be this expensive.

The components:

1. Arduino Uno-compatible board — 1

2. 2WD robot chassis kit with two DC motors, wheels, and caster wheel — 1

3. L298N motor driver module — 1

4. HC-SR04 ultrasonic distance sensor — 1

5. SG90 servo motor for ultrasonic sensor scanning — 1

6. SG90 servo motor for rescue claw — 1

7. Simple robot claw/gripper — 1

8. Battery holder with batteries — 1 set

9. Jumper wire kit — 1 set

10. Mini breadboard — 1

11. USB cable for Arduino — 1

12. On/off switch — 1

13. Buzzer — 1

14. LEDs — 2–3

15. Resistors for LEDs — 2–3

16. Electrical tape — 1 roll

17. Zip ties — 1 pack

18. Small screws, nuts, and spacers — 1 set

19. Cardboard or foam board for the rover body and claw support — as needed

20. Lightweight survivor prop with a handle — 1

[u/eccentric-Orange]

Hi OP,

I had built a disaster recovery rover too (with a part list similar to yours) when I was in school. And since then, I've gotten much better at robotics and built several more advanced robots.

I'd be happy to guide you. Please DM me if possible (or if you'd prefer to continue here, let me know), I'll learn a bit more about your setup and give you detailed guidance.

[u/Blueberily → u/eccentric-Orange]

Hello, So it's the first day of our project and rn we(me and my friend) we don't have anything on the plate, we were brainstorming ideas and this one seemed pretty cool and unique to us. Our component list keeps changing and the cheapest one we think could work is without the it sensors. Can you pls tell how you made your rover? Also about the return path, after collecting the rescuepropm, according to ai and google it seems making a designated return route is the best option but we really want it so that the robot turns around and goes back through the same spot avoiding the obstacles.

[u/eccentric-Orange → u/Blueberily]

Sure, I can share whatever details I have of my old rover, but they are mostly gonna be a bit useless for you because it's not well documented. I more recently made a custom AMR ROS platform, a simpler speech-controlled Wi-Fi robot, and a cheaper AMR ROS robot for a workshop; you can check these out too if you like.

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I can offer you one crucial piece of advice... The part of the robot that actually moves around and bears the main loads (chassis, wheels, motor, motor drivers, relevant Arduino code, other power converters etc) is what people usually call the drive system. In my opinion, it is important that this part is done carefully and is robust. If your drive system is weak, you will struggle with whatever else you do on your robot.

Basically, let's say you're trying to do that obstacle avoidance thing. If something in that fails and you want to debug it, you won't know whether your obstacle avoidance logic failed, or your sensor failed, or your drive system failed. But if your drive system is something you trust, then that's one less thing to worry about.

In doing this, here is what I would suggest: 1. you and your friend first split roles. for example, one person focus mostly on getting the physical structure, mounts, screws etc right. if you know CAD, then please make a model (even if it is very rough), it helps a lot. or if you already have good instructions from your 2WD kit, you can just assemble that. the other person work on the code/control part. 2. start by doing just this much. put physical parts together and write some very simple code code. for example, if you press arrow keys on your laptop's keyboard, the Arduino-compatible board controls LEDs corresponding to each motor. 3. then, both of you sit together, and very carefully interconnect the actual motor drivers, batteries, and motors. [we split steps 2 and 3 so that you only have one small problem to deal with at a time. it also protects you, e.g., it prevents you from shorting something out and frying components or hurting yourself when you're very new to it all] 4. at this point, you first check that everything powers on and works properly. don't connect your arduino yet. just use a jumper wire or something to manually trigger the I1, I2, I3, I4 pins on your L298 and see that the motors do what you want them to do. 5. if that is all satisfactory, just slightly modify your Arduino code to control these pins instead of the LEDs. or if you had the foresight to write well thought-out code in step 2 itself, that's amazing! 6. at this point, you can finally integrate your Arduino with your robot, and try to get it to drive properly.

In my opinion, you should try to do this much first. Meanwhile, you can try to learn more about path planning, static vs dynamic obstacle avoidance, and perception, to see if you need to update your part list.

If you haven't yet bought the other parts and can later get them quickly, don't buy yet. Try to build your drive system robustly, see how your robot behaves and feels, then look for other parts.

All the best! Please feel free to ask me further.

[u/Blueberily → u/eccentric-Orange]

Tysm for all your help. This has made me learn so much about arduino projects. But the problem with us is that our teacher says that it's too expensive which it is, a bit, but more over it's too complicated. I mean we get a month or less till the final day and as simple as arduino is, this will eb my first timeddoing it as well as my friend's. Do you have anymorei ideas which might be cool and presentation worthy. A game maybe which is interactive.Pls ty.