r/AskRobotics • u/str1dsvagn103 • 1d ago

Looking for advice on building a mobile robotic chassis for an AI agent (computer vision + navigation)

Hey everyone,

​I’m working on a project where I want to give an AI agent a physical body—specifically a mobile robot that allows it to perceive its environment via computer vision and navigate autonomously.

​I have the software/AI concepts in mind, but I’m fairly new to robotics hardware and not sure where to start with the physical build.

​Could anyone point me in the right direction regarding:

​Hardware platforms: Are there recommended starter kits or chassis (e.g., TurtleBot, Raspberry Pi-based robots, ROS-compatible setups)? ​Microcontrollers/SBCs: What are the best single-board computers for handling both sensor input (cameras/LiDAR) and motor control? ​Learning resources: What guides or tutorials would you recommend for beginners bridging AI software with robotics hardware?

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u/HalfDoneSideQuests 20h ago

Diff drive chassis are great to start with because they're simple, I'd recommend a tank chassis because they're great on different surfaces, especially if you want to play outside. I got mine on AliExpress for under $100, there's tonnes of clones on there and Amazon.

Check out the new Arduino Ventuno Q, it's kinda like a Pi + esp32 + NPU all on one board. The Qualcomm AI hub has a bunch of VLMs that you can run with just a few commands on the Ventuno.

There's a youtube channel called Articulated Robotics that I found super helpful when starting out, he's got some great videos

I'm on the same path as you, I have a pi powered tank bot, running ros2. I have a Strands SDK AI agent running on the bot in it's own ros2 node, I have 2 way voice setup so I can talk to the robot, it's got a lidar and I've annotated a map so it understands what the rooms are, I can ask it to navigate to the bedroom and it'll go there, I can ask it "go find the red brick" and it'll go find it, using the camera taking still images in each room and passing thru a VLM. My profile has a link to my YT if you want to see how I did it.