Arduino Muscle Car

Convert a cheap, dumb RC truck into an autonomous “smart” auto
By Dave Prochnow Posted 07.31.2008 at 11:07 am 2 Comments

Muscle Car Orangutan Installation: Dave Prochnow

If you're looking for an easy way to add DC motor control to your next Arduino project, look no further than the Orangutan LV-168 Robot Controller by Pololu. Equipped with two bidirectional, low-voltage, H-bridge motor controls, this ATmega168 board can handle many of the tasks that are typically sought by Arduino DIYers. Plus you won't have to monkey around with lots of complex programming, either. Pololu offers a complete suite of Arduino libraries that provide easy-to-use high-level commands for tweaking every nook and cranny of the LV-168 board.

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Tags

DIY, Arduino, dave prochnow, hummer, IR, LV-168, Nikko, Orangutan, Pololu, projects, RC truck, sensor Sharp GP2D120
In addition to the two motor control outputs, the LV-168 features eight plug-and-use I/O ports, two LEDs (red and green), an 8x2 LCD, a programmable buzzer, three user-definable push-buttons, an analog potentiometer, and an onboard temperature sensor. Supporting these impressive hardware features are six Orangutan-specific Arduino libraries. Just import the appropriate library include link into your project and you can play Bach on the buzzer, display a room's ambient temperature on the LCD, or drive the motor outputs forward and reverse.

As a demonstration of the simplicity of use and the powerful command structure exhibited by the Orangutan LV-168, we modified an inexpensive RC truck into a self-contained, "smart" robot cruiser capable of driving around a room, avoiding obstacles, playing a tune, flashing its lights, and displaying the room temperature.

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2 Comments

Comments

nexisnet
Article Rating: 
5
 07/31/08 at 2:35 pm

This looks really fantastic, I want a fleet of mini Hummer-bots patrolling my house! Any chance of posting a video of the Hummer-bot in action?

If you wanted to save a tad by combining shipping and/or let your robot spot objects farther away, Pololu carries the similar Sharp GP2Y0A21YK0F distance sensor, which has a range of 10cm to 80cm (as opposed to the 4cm to 30cm range of the Sharp GP2D120). You would probably need to tweak the sketch constants a little to adjust for the different range though.

-Adam

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Kabin
Article Rating: 
0
 08/02/08 at 4:46 am

its nice Arduino Muscle Car good project.

prefabrik

kabin

konteyner

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