Ignoring my photographic skills, are my projects really scary?

[gonfanon]

I'm working on a fun little project - building a low-cost quadruped robot that can autonomously track and follow an object/person using machine vision. Here are the core components I'm using:

Arduino Uno: The brilliant microcontroller board that needs no introduction in this community! It's simply a legendary development platform that has enabled so many amazing projects over the years. (A little Arduino worship is a must here!)

SenseCAP Watcher: This is an AI camera device that supports over 100 different vision models out of the box. I'm hoping to leverage its perception capabilities to allow my robot to easily recognize and track target objects/people.

9 x SG90 Servos: To control the robot's 4 legs and a movable "head" for the camera.

I've already designed and 3D printed all the structural components for the quadruped chassis. However, after assembling everything, my friends have...let's just say not been too kind about its aesthetics. They think it looks unpleasantly grotesque! I could use a confidence boost - does it really look that bad??

Thanks in advance for your help Arduino community! I've run into some roadblocks with the design and component selection that I'd love to get advice on:

I'm using a Bambu Lab A1 mini 3D printer and I'm fairly new to 3D printing. I've noticed the printed parts never seem to quite match my original CAD designs 100% dimensionally. There are some tight tolerance areas where the servo horns don't smoothly snap into the printed components. Any tips on improving dimensional accuracy?

I've bizarrely managed to fry a couple Arduino Unos already when operating the servos. I'm reasonably certain the servos run around 4.8V, while the Arduino provides a 5V supply. Do I need a separate servo driver board? Or does anyone have experience debugging power issues between Arduinos and servos?

I may have underestimated the real-world challenges in this project! But I remain excited about combining the beloved Arduino with cutting-edge AI capabilities from the SenseCAP Watcher. Let me know your thoughts and advice!

[gonfanon]

I know it's only a very small part done so far, but I wanted to share everything I have on hand: GitHub - limengdu/SenseCAP_Watcher_Robot

[sonofcy]

You might want to use a more modern powerful processor than an UNO.

[gonfanon]

May I know why? My vision is just to drive the servos.

[jremington]

@gonfanon

the servos run around 4.8V, while the Arduino provides a 5V supply

The Arduino cannot be used to power ANY servos.

For SG90 servos, the rule of thumb is 4.8 to 6V at 1 Ampere per servo.

Therefore, a 4.8 to 6V power supply capable of providing at least 9 Amperes. Don't forget to connect the grounds.

[gonfanon]

Get!
Thanks for the tips, I think I'll put a nappy bag on him

[sonofcy]

It's a compute intensive application.