For an electronics person, building the mechanics of a robot — especially a robust robot — can be somewhat daunting. [Jithin] started with an off-the-shelf 4 wheel drive chassis to build an off-road Arduino robot he calls the Badland Brawler. The kit was a bit over $100, but as you can see in the video below, it is pretty substantial, with an enclosed frame and large mud tires.
The remaining parts include an Arduino, a battery, and a motor driver IC. The Arduino is one with WiFi (an MKR 1000, in fact) and there’s a phone app for controlling the robot.
Honestly, once you have the chassis taken care of, the rest is pretty easy. Of course, the phone app is a bit more effort, but you could replace it in a number of ways. Blynk, comes to mind, for example.
The motor drivers are easy to figure out. This would be a great platform for some sensors to allow for more autonomy. We liked how the frame had mount points for a lot of different boards and sensors and could hold everything, for the most part, inside. That’s probably a good idea for a robot which will be traversing rugged terrain.
If you do decide to roll your own app with Blynk, we’ve done it with a very different kind of robot. Four-wheel drive robots don’t have to be big, as we’ve seen in the past.
This is just an advertisement. :-(. Oh no, I’ve been a hackaday reader since the very early days and never even thought that I would see this.
The person who built the thing isn’t selling anything… he has provided links to where you can buy the parts, but they’re not from the builder. He included links for you to buy the same crap to build the same crap… how is that an Ad?
The video is sponsored by Banggood, and there’s not super-much in the build other than putting together a kit. I’m kinda with Dave on this one. Sorry!
This is really awesome!! It is really a Badland Brawly
“it is pretty substantial” L293D ! please no
So we are calling ‘remote controlled vehicles’, robots now?