Balancing Robots From Off-The-Shelf Parts

In this day and age, we are truly blessed as far as the electronics hobby is concerned. Advanced modules such as gyros and motor controllers are readily available, not just as individual parts, but as pre-soldered modules that can be wired together with a minimum of fuss and at low cost. This simple balancing robot is a great example of what can be done with such parts (Google Translate link).

The robot has an ESP32 running the show, which provides both the processing power required, as well as the WiFi interface used to control the ‘bot from a smartphone. This is achieved using an app from JJRobots, an open-source robotics teaching resource. Stepper motors are controlled by DRV8825 modules sourced from amazon, and an MPU6050 gyro rounds out the major components. Naturally, source code is available on GitHub for your reading pleasure.

It’s remarkable that in this day and age, it’s possible to build such a project with little to no soldering required at all. With a credit card and a healthy supply of patch leads, it’s possible to whip up complex digital projects quite quickly. We’ve seen a similar approach before, too. Video after the break.

[Thanks to Baldpower for the tip!]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRthlAZSKOU

4 thoughts on “Balancing Robots From Off-The-Shelf Parts

  1. The one in orange is the kid who runs around the classroom pretending to be airplane; the tall blue one and the green one in the front are the two kids who keep fidgeting like they need to use the restroom really badly; the green one in the back the one kid who’s diligently doing his classwork.

    (c:

Leave a 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.