I've currently joined a robotics group and the first glaring problem I found is we are using 4 different batteries in each robot as such:
12V battery -> Relay -> Motors
7.2V AND 9V battery to microcontroller, which drives servos, sensors, switches relay, and xbee radio
7.2V to custom acceleration sensor, which has built in logic to send a break signal at a fixed value
How I'd like to reorganize it, because these robots have reliability issues:
12V battery -> "X Board" -> voltage for boards, sensors, servos, and motor (need 2 12V for motors, 1 9V maybe for arduino, 1 7.2V for the custome accelerometer, and several optional 5V for servos) that can be controlled by the microcontroller (which we intend to replace with an arduino of some flavor)
So I'm not really sure what such a board would be. We have the ability to print our own circuit boards if necessary, but I hope such an item exists off the shelf. What would the name of it be so I can search for it?