Robot Can Barely Move With So Much Hardware Strapped To It

web-server-robot

We think that [Andrej Škraba] needs to start looking for a beefier motor platform. This little robot has so much hardware strapped to it the motors can barely keep up. But with a little help it can make its way around the house, and it takes a whole lot of connectivity and computing power along for the ride.

The white stick on the top is a single-board computer. The MK802 Mini sports an A10 processor and up to a gig of ram. Just below that is a USB hub which is sitting on top of a USB battery pack. This powers the computer and gives him the ability to plug in more than one USB device. The robot chassis is from Pololu. It uses an Arduino and a motor shield for locomotion, with commands pushed to it via USB.

This setup makes programming very easy. Here [Andrej] has a keyboard and HDMI monitor plugged in to do a little work. When not coding it can be disconnected and driven over the network. He makes this happen using an Apache server on the MK802 and node.js. See a demo of the system in the clip after the break.

4 thoughts on “Robot Can Barely Move With So Much Hardware Strapped To It

  1. looks so umm crazy tall and moves slow. whats the purpose?
    id run something lighter than ubuntu to save power. also get smaller lighter usb hub and use a dc/dc step-up to run motors off the main power pack ditching them 9volt batteries.
    get rid of them cables and use usb nano bluetooth keyboard/mice combo
    then add wifi camera XD

Leave a Reply to bluryburyCancel reply

Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy)

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.