[MDN.RR] Remote-controlled Rover by JorgeMDN

Last crawled date: 2 years, 10 months ago

Inspired by Perseverance, the latest rover NASA sent to Mars, I designed this remote-controlled rover: MDN.RR. The MDN.RR is an all-wheel drive vehicle equipped with a 5 DOF arm, which can be used to pick up stuff or move a drone camera.
I used an ESP32 board (38-pin version) to decode the PWM signals from an 8-channel 2.4GHz receiver and control the vehicle accordingly. The coding was done in the Arduino IDE.
Each of the four legs consists of a shock absorber, a carbon fiber rod, a control arm (to keep the leg from bending outwards), a geared down DC motor (known as TT motor), an MG996R servo motor (which controls the direction of the wheel) and a 51105 thrust ball bearing (which holds the weight of the vehicle and allows the wheel to rotate with ease). The MDN.RR can be powered with a 2S lipo, which is strategically placed at a low location to optimize the stabilization of the vehicle by keeping the center of gravity as low as possible.
The CAD model can be viewed online at: https://a360.co/2T2VLZY. I highly recommend using the section analysis and exploded view functions to better understand how to assemble the rover.
List of 3D printed parts:
(2) Legs
(2) Legs (mirrored)
(2) Leg Holders
(2) Leg Holders (mirrored)
(4) Leg Spacers
(2) Control Arm Holders
(4) Shock Absorber Holders
(4) Motor Holders
(2) Wheels
(2) Wheels (mirrored)
(2) Frame - Part A
(2) Frame - Part B
(1) Electronics Holder
(4) LN298 Risers
(1) Battery Holder - Front
(1) Battery Holder - Rear
(1) Electronics Case - Front
(1) Electronics Case - Rear
(1) Arm Base
(1) Stepper Motor Gear
(1) Shoulder
(1) Shoulder Bearing Shaft
(1) Shoulder Bearing Holder
(1) Shoulder Cover
(1) Arm
(1) Forearm
(1) Wrist
(1) Gripper Gear
(2) Grippers
I included the STEP file of the wheel with no pattern, so you can design you own and test it on different surfaces.
List of electronics components:
(1) 2S (or even 3S) lipo battery
(1) ESP32 board (38-pin version)
(1) 2.4GHz transmitter (with at least 7 channels, one of which is a dial wheel)
(1) 2.4GHz receiver (7 channels)
(6) MG996R/MG995 servo motors (Metal gears)
(2) SG90 servo motors
(1) LN298 driver
(4) TT motors (Metal gears)
(1) 28-BYJ stepper motor and ULN2003 driver
(5) 30cm servo extension cables
(1) DC-DC LM2596 buck converter
(1) KCD1-101 rocker switch
List of hardware components:
(2) Zip ties
(2) 18x16x180mm (O.D.xI.D.xLength) carbon fiber rods
(4) 18x16x115mm (O.D.xI.D.xLength) carbon fiber rods
(4) 100mm shock absorbers
(4) 122mm connecting rods (I used the ones for the 1/10 RC Axial SCX10)
(5) 608RS ball bearings
(4) 51105 thrust ball bearings
(36) 6mm steel balls
(6) MG996R 25T circular horns
(1) M10x30 bolt, nut and washer
(1) Velcro strip (to hold the camera to the forearm)
I’ll update the hardware components list and assembly steps, and post a video within the next couple of days, but you can start printing the parts.