Converting RC Car to Autonomous Car

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello! I would like to convert an RC car to an Autonomous car. The only problem is I am completely ignorant when it comes to hardware. I have a good amount of programming experience though. Here is what I would like to do:

  • Buy a cheap RC car
  • Fit it with some sensors (I would like to start out with some simple distance sensor and then work my way up to something more complex as I get it working)
  • Fit it with a brain

From the research I've done, it sounds like Arduino would be a good platform for this. My questions are:

  • Is Arduino a good platform?
  • Does anyone have some hardware basics reading suggestions?
  • I did some tutorial searches on google but I found my lack of hardware knowledge to be a problem, does anyone have a good tutorial suggestion.

Thank you

2

Yes, Arduino is a good platform.

Read about motor control, specifically the H-bridge. If you can find a cheap RC car with tank steering (separate motors on left and right wheels) you can probably tap into the existing H-bridge circuits to control the motors.

There are many examples of using ultrasonic distance sensors with Arduino.

3

Hi,

Great project and you'll learn a lot. arduino is fine for this..

So, some starter stuff to learn from??

Lots of stuff here: http://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/HOME

Motor Controls and more- http://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/TUTORIALS
Motor Drivers- http://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/MotorDrivers

Let us know how it's going...

4

Great! Thank you for the information!

5

Yes, Arduino is a great platform for this. In our case, we installed an Android device onto a RC car to control the vehicle autonomously. Here is the preliminary result: