This project was developed in partnership with Robô Lúdico Schooland JLCPCB Factory that offers 5 free PCBs of Arduino Compatible Board.

Introduction

Have you ever imagined assembling a competition robot and putting it on a battlefield with several other robots? I am absolutely sure that you have seen some robot battle competition. They are placed in a closed environment and are controlled by a team of people.

These robots have the purpose of facing another robot, where the rules can vary according to each competition. The rules can, for example: make the opponent turn; make the opponent stay out of that demarcated region, among others.

And some competitions are allowed to implement advanced features for robots, such as, for example, the implementation of claws. This category of accessory can influence the stop in a dispute, as it allows the robot to interact more aggressively with its opponent.

The time has come for you to learn how it works and assemble your first robot for competitions.

With great joy, your robot will destroy enemies, or with great sadness, you will see your robot being destroyed.

Let's learn how to assemble a mini combat robot?

To facilitate development we use the Arduino platform to control the robot. Figure 1 illustrates the Claw Fighting Robot prototype.

Figure 1 - Combat Robot with gripper.

Figure 1 - Combat Robot with gripper.

This robot is formed by the following resources:

  • Claws;
  • Ultrasonic sensor;
  • Seesaw switch ON / OFF;
  • Battery Charger Module; d
  • 2 DC motors;
  • 1 Servo-motor;
  • Battery support;
  • Driver module L293D;
  • 1 Arduino Uno.

With all these resources we will be able to create several features for the robot. Keep reading and see what you can do.

But before we start showing you how it works and resources, see what you will learn in this project:

One of the characteristics of this robot is its size. It was built to be very compact and agile. The figure below shows the internal region of the robot.

In the internal structure, it is possible to observe the ultrasonic sensor, the DC motors, the support for rechargeable batteries, the drive module, and the battery charger module.

At some points, it is also possible to observe some tears, where the spare parts of the sides and surfaces of the prototype will be fitted.

Fittings designed for M3 nuts and bolts were designed to fix the structure.

The M3 screw has ideal size for this type of project, as a size above or below this, could unnecessarily increase the weight of the prototype, or make it more fragile, respectively. Figure 3 illustrates the internal and upper surfaces of the robot.

Figure 3 - Internal lower and upper surfaces of the robot.

Figure 3 - Internal lower and upper surfaces of the robot.

The robot in this project has 2 wheels with 1 motor each, and the driver module is responsible for controlling these motors.

This driver can control from the speed of the robot's wheels through the Arduino's PWM pins, up to the direction of rotation, being able to control up to two DC motors, or a stepper motor.

The driver was installed on the upper internal surface, just above the Arduino UNO, as shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4 - Driver module on the upper surface.

Figure 4 - Driver module on the upper surface.

The wheel of this robot has three parts: the internal, the intermediate and the external. The internal and external have the same structure.

The three parts that make up the wheel are connected by 6 pin-like structures, however, with a rectangular shape, in order to leave the three parts fixed to each other.

In addition to this structure used to fix the three parts of the wheel, a part was also modeled to be in the center of the external wheel, in order to hide the hole in the motor shaft.

The following figure illustrates the composition of the Claw Fighting Robot wheel, along with an oring ring.

In order for the system to become autonomous, a support for two rechargeable batteries was placed in the front region of the robot.

For this support of the batteries, a structure was modeled to keep...

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