Thanks to a lot of help from the people at the
Society of Robots and
Arduino forums I have completed the second phase of the HummBot project. HummBot is now able to drive autonomously, controlled by the Arduino processor.
I used the following components:
- Arduino controller,
- a Graupner electronics speed controller (ESC),
- a breadboard,
- a 7.2V battery pack.
I took some time to figure out how to control the ESC. Basically the ESC can be controlled just like a servo by sending 50Hz pulses. By varying the width of the pulses the motor runs forwards and backwards at varying speeds. Thanks to a tip I found out that to make this work I first had to initialize the ESC by sending neutral, maximum and minimum pulses.
In this first setup the HummBot drives forward for 2 seconds, then backwards for 2 seconds, then forwards again, and so on...
Here is a first picture, I will make a video shortly.
The next step will be to create a proper platform in the HummBot chassis to attach the Arduino and breadboard to. After that I will of course combine the servo, IR sensor and motor control to let the HummBot drive around some more!
1 comment:
Hello. Great post!
I would like to try the same thing. I know nothing about programming an Arduino though, could you give some insight as to what code you used to operate the ESC? Thank you!
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