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Description |
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This is a compact robot that utilizes three omni-wheels to vector it in any direction. By changing the speeds and directions of the motors the robot can drive in any direction without needing to turn. This makes it very useful for navigating around the house. It works on any indoor surface or outdoors in short grass, pavement, concrete, etc. Below are the links to different parts you can add onto the robot platform to customize it to your needs.
To See a picture of the vectoring robot, see our general ATR page.
Platform |
The platform can be either aluminum or acrylic. Only one compact size is available for the tri-wheeled robot. You can stack the platforms to yield additional room. The platforms are laser cut to accept a huge array of sensors, controllers, motors, etc.
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It is recommended that you get an upper deck and All-Thread hardware package to hold the batteries, there is not much room for them on the lower deck with the controllers.
Motors and Motor Mounts |
Only our 7.5kg-cm stall torque motor size will fit this kit. The motor will drive the robot over any indoor surface and most outdoor surfaces. The motor housing connects the motor to the base platform via pre-drilled holes.
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Wheels and Drive Shafts |
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The Omni wheels and shafts are also sold together as one unit. The shaft comes with a bearing and lock collar that fit right into/onto the motors and motor mounts. The wheels are 4" in diameter. The traction wheels are made of durable urethane to help grip the floor. These wheels also work outdoors. The wheels are either single row wheels or double row wheels. The double row wheels provide a little smoother operation, but both work great. One thing to note with the omni wheels is if you run sideways to a hill, the wheels will side slip down the hill, but if the robot angles up the hill slightly it can overcome this. If you are ordering omni wheels, you will need 3 individual shaft and wheel sets.
Motor Speed Controllers |
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For the Tri-Wheeled Robot, you will need a total of three independent motor controllers. The MD22 and Magnevation drives are dual channel motor controllers, so only two are needed, leaving you a spare channel. Ideally, three of our our single channel PWM controllers can be used. See our speed controller comparison page to help you make your decision.
Controller (the brains) |
The controller is the brain of the robot. Many different controllers can be used with these robot kits.
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Controller interface |
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If you're familiar with our popular Trekker Robot kits, one thing to consider is you can use an OOPic II/II+ with and OOPic II Expansion board, or an OOPic-R with an OOPic-R Expansion board and drive the MD22s using the servo outputs or I2C and you get all the great features of the expansion boards and your robot will be just like a Trekker only bigger! You can add all the sensors, etc that the expansion boards support and most of the programs for the Trekker will be applicable. See our controller hook up page for more details. These kits also provide you with battery trays for your controller power.
Electrical Power Hookup |
Robots need their batteries. We sell several different batteries. The motors require 24V to run. You can look at the motor pages to see what the current draw is for each motor. For the Tri-Vector robot kits, since they use small motors that won't draw too much juice, a 1500mAhr battery is fine. We sell NiMH batteries so you won't have memory issues and will get much better performance from these as compared to NiCad's. We recommend you get the connectors with them so you can easily unplug them and charge them or swap them out with a second set.
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24V is too much voltage for the PIC controllers, plus its best to have the instruments and controls on a separate source than the motors. You can use either a 9.6V battery or a 7.2V battery. The OOPic controller or our expansion boards will regulate it to 5V. The regulator typically needs at least 6V. Either battery will go for a very long time depending on how many extra sensors are being used. Again, the batteries we sell are NiMH batteries, so they won't form a memory and will last a long time. We recommend you get the connectors with them so you can easily unplug them and charge them or swap them out with a second set. If you are going to use an expansion board, they come with battery holders, or you may prefer the battery packs. We sell single AA NiMH batteries for the expansion board battery trays.
We sell plain old transformers for chargers or you can get our automatic peak battery charger. The peak charger will monitor you battery as it's being charged and shut off when it has reached it's peak charge. These chargers are close to $200 when bought elsewhere, but we have developed our own charger that does the same thing at less than 1/2 the price. You can also use a standard transformer and manually disconnect it when the battery has been charged, but you run the risk of destroying your batteries if you forget to take them off the charger.
Finally, you will need some wire, fuses, and switches. The kit we sell is simple and will allow you to turn you robot on and off and protect everything with fuses.
Electrical Motor Hookup |
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Electric noise is one of the most frustrating issues when working on robots with DC motors. The EMF coming from the motors will reek havoc on the microcontrollers, any RF equipment, or other sensitive electronic equipment. We recommend you use the following kits to wire your motors. These kits will provide the wiring from the speed/motor controller to the motors. You will need one kit per motor. Follow this link for more information on how to hook up the motors.
Controls Hookup |
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You need to be able to hookup the controllers (OOPic or RF link) to the motor speed controllers (Magnevation controller, the SuperDroid PWM, or the MD22). There are many ways this can be accomplished. For selecting the best method for your application, see our motor controller page.
Controller cooling and noise suppression |
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This is an enclosure that acts as a Faraday cage helping to protect it from electronic noise. With an optional fan it can also be used to help keep your controller cool. It also protects your controller from physical harm. This isn't typically a mandatory part, but just adds further protection. It can always be added later if you find out you need it. We like putting our motor controllers in them to help isolate electric noise and provide forced cooling on the electronics.
Hardware |
The final item you need to make you kit complete is a hardware package.
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It includes nuts, bolts washers, nylon spacers (for isolating your electronics and controller boards), cable ties, and cable hold downs.
Sensors |
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In order to make your robot autonomous, you will need to add sensors. You can always add sensors later. Be sure to use sensors that are best suited for the micro controller you have selected. If you are using an OOPic, all are sensors can be bused on the controller with a little wiring. We recommend using one of our expansion boards as discussed above, then all the Trekker sensors and LCDs, etc will plug directly into the expansion board. If you are using the RF04 CM02 Telemetry kit, you should only use sensors that are I2C, such as our SRF08 ultrasonic sensors.
Cameras |
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Nothing is better than a wireless camera to see what your robot sees. We have a large variety of wireless camera including pan and tilt systems.
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