I have built a mobile manipulator robot but the battery dies so quickly and I waste a lot of time because of that. Especially when I'm testing a new functionality I need it to last for 10-15 mins but it generally lasts couple of minutes and motors stop moving. I currently use 9v battery as an external source for the H bridge motor controller. I use several boards together via I2C and have a 2 wifi modules, PIR sensor, ultrasonic sensor plus 2 motors so there are lots of things to power up. For each board I plug in 9v battery to keep it going but my robot stops moving or slows down dramatically after couple of mins. I keep hearing about lipo batteries and I was just wondering if anyone can suggest a type/brand of battery for such robot that can last longer, if any of you have had similar issues I would like to hear it.
Small 9V batteries are utterly inappropriate for running anything more than a small radio!
You need batteries capable of high enough current for your motors, which means amps, not
milliamps. High current branded rechargable AA's are a possibility, LiPo, SLA. But you need
to figure out the current requirements, you've not said anything about which motors you
have (these will take most of the current, you'd almost certainly want them separately
powered too, motor power is filthy noisy and should be kept away from the other components)