For any hobbyist, in microcontroller based designs, the micromouse is the qualifying project. The micromouse is nothing but an autonomous robot, which is required to solve a maze in the minimum time possible. I started with the design of the chassis. I wrote some papers on it too.
I started off with two such toys as shown on the left. This is a simple tumble car toy with one DC motor that makes it run in one direction with speed depending upon the motor voltage. From this, all i wanted was the gearbox so that I can reduce the speed and have better torque. I got the wheels as a bonus, so I did'nt have to design them. Afterall money saved is money earned. Next comes the cutting and shedding part. I LOVE ripping the guts out of anything electronic and/or mechanical. So what to do next? Open it up ofcourse.
After removing the top cover, I get this. Now If I want my robo to move around, Im going to need a differential geared motor with friction switched gears, OR- two motors and two sets of gear boxes. There goes another toy car! I then cut off the unnecessary set of wheels and shafts to get a reduced geared wheel set. I will have two of these so that I have the ability to steer.
After all the carnage, what remains is shown above. The image on the right is what is required. And this with lots of aluminium clamp works looks like the images shown below.
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