Let's start an official ArduRover project

Inspired by John Arne's post, I got a Redcat Rockslide, which is totally cool and a great robotics platform. As you can see, it's really easy to add a mounting platform for electronics (that's APM with GPS and Xbee mounted above) and there's LOADS of room. You could even have it carry a laptop if you wanted. BTW, that's the 1/8 size Redcat shown above, which is $236. I think the 1/10 size Redcat would probably be just as good for most uses, and it's just $159. [Update: the 1:10 isn't big enough. See this comparison]

I've registered the ArduRover name, and am now just looking for the best starting point to modify the APM code for ground rovers. Since James Goppert is part of the APM dev team, we'll probably start with his rover code, which you can see at work here. But if others have code or sensor additions to the basic APM set that would be good to add to a rover, this is the place to discuss and share.

Ideally, we'll get this done in time for the Sparkfun AVC contest, on the hope that APM can have a decent chance of placing in all of the categories--ground, plane and quad. Which would be awesome.

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Gary Mortimer January 30, 2011 at 12:58am

Thanks Chris, one day I will get the hang of this interweb and maybe reading as well! Keep watching, it does fly.

OpenPilot GPS testing with RC car from James Cotton on Vimeo.
3D Robotics

Chris Anderson January 29, 2011 at 11:47pm

Gary, use Vimeo's "old embed code"
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Gary Mortimer January 29, 2011 at 11:35pm

Who said flying car, and why can't I seem to either embed or link video at the moment!!

http://vimeo.com/17717442

OpenPilot GPS testing with RC car from James Cotton on Vimeo.
3D Robotics

Chris Anderson January 29, 2011 at 11:02pm

That's a little too much ;-) Maybe something in between...
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Chris Anderson January 29, 2011 at 10:25pm

Thanks, Brian--that's helpful. The stock battery is a 7.4v NiMh. What do you think about me putting a 11.1v LiPo on instead?
T3

Brian Wolfe January 29, 2011 at 10:01pm

Hey Chris,
I don't have this exact beast, but one similar. I put a beefier motor on to speed it up and found the gear box couldn't hold up to the load and I stripped several gears before switching back to stock.
There are games to be played by changing the gear on the motor but don't expect too much. Maybe a 10 or 20% trade between speed and torque.
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Chris Anderson January 29, 2011 at 9:49pm

I just started driving it around. It's very strong but not fast by any stretch of the imagination. Anybody know how to speed this bad boy up? Higher voltage battery pack?
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Chris Anderson January 29, 2011 at 8:16pm

The key part will be adding a laptop running a Kinect, which will interface with APM for obstacle avoidance. Much better than ultrasonic sensors and cheaper than lidar.
diego colonnello January 29, 2011 at 7:00pm

Chris, please, i beg you, stop the good ideas coming, i´m still learning to get the most out of my Ardupilot, just got my APM and you keep giving me more and more things to think of. by the way, allready ordered some motors to make an arducopter........

You guys should write in little letters in the home page "Warning: getting an ardupilot can be adictive, DIYdrones takes no liability for your time spent creating, crashing, and making great things!!!"

Hummmmm, tomorrow gonna order my redcat..... ArduRover.... interesting...
Ron Jacobs January 29, 2011 at 6:43pm

Ok crazy thought, but think about the Mars Rovers and the fact they have lasted a bazillion times their expected life/mission time. More complex, but possible design? 6 wheels I think and solar power for long term duration. See above re a bazillion times...! they don't don't travel fast and take time to pre-compute travel path and waypoints, we could do that.

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