Making a Rover with a Claw

Projects General Guidance
1

Hello,

I am a student working on a rover project and I have very little experience with electronics and software. I need to build a rover that has a movable claw with a live camera feed and LED lights. All of this has to be remotely controlled from a max of 100 meters. I was looking into RC controlled systems but it seems my design will have too many controls for the RC transmitter. Then I was thinking about using a Bluetooth module with an Arduino MEGA and controlling it with my laptop (Mac) but I am not confident about the signal strength of a Bluetooth. I was then looking into using a Pixhawk but again this would be RC controlled and I would not have enough channels on my transmitter or receiver.

I will be controlling at least 6 servos, 2 motors, lights, and a camera that provides a live feed. If someone can please point me in the right direction and help me figure out the best way to remotely control this rover and if Arduino is, in fact, the best route. If so, what kind of Arduino? Should I make my own control system with potentiometers? I am more than willing to learn, just need the correct direction!

Thank You,
Nick

2

I'm not sure but I think that RC with 20 channels is available. If not you can build your own, it's not that complicated to make a sender and receiver implement any number of multiplexed channels.

Or you define a set of commands, which you can send to the rover. Each command can terminate after some time or when reaching its goal (position...), or by another command.

For camera feedback you need a separate video channel, e.g. an action cam.

3

If you can actually see the rover then WiFi would cover 100m easily. If there are things between you and the rover then it depends on what materials the obstacles are made of. For control you could make your own command set and send it over WiFi. You could keep the vision separate from control and use a WiFi enabled camera. Your Mac would need to communicate with both the Arduino and the camera using WiFi.

Arduinos are good for control functions like your servos, motors and lights They don't come with WiFi built in but you can add a Wifi shield.

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