Building a Foldable Rover



This Circuit is a tiny folable Rover Robot! My Electronic Kits – http://flexar.io
PCBs manufactued at PCBWay – https://www.pcbway.com
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Other Videos Related to this Project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezONF7bKqfs&t=152s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ys8wHc_UrsU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqKVX6po2o4&t=73s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oa6sP-joAr8&t=322s

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46 thoughts on “Building a Foldable Rover”

  1. Maybe put the wheels on independent sections of pcb and connected them to the main box section with 2 control arm pcb sections to give each wheel independent suspension.

    something like this … |⸗▣=|

    Reply
  2. What if you made a track version instead of wheels? Then you could have many more coils pulling the tracks, for more torque. Also keep the wheel motors; the track coils would be at right angles to the wheel coils, parallel to the horizontal plane. Need more torque? Use longer tracks.

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  3. It looks like the next version will contain a set of several rotors for each wheel. there's still room to fit three sets (circuit board and magnets). This will definitely increase the torque. How minimut will increase the magnetic flux. In addition, I would like to see more illumination. You give a display of LEDs in the entire cover. Let's say an arrow indicates the current direction. Or funny imogies. Oh, and what about the light sensors so that he runs after the laser like a kitten?

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  4. You'll probably get better performance out of the motors if you change from aluminium wheels to steel. The steel should reshape the magnetic flux so the majority of it is pointed in towards your coils.

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  5. It'll probably be difficult to fit in that tiny wheel, but have you tried using a Halbach array for the magnets? If you can fit it in, it might just give you the torque you need to really get it moving the way you want.

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  6. I think if you can switch it to a 3 wheeled car turning and traction could be solved. Or make it into a tank with tracks so the torque is spread across each sides morots. Without suspension it will loose traction too easily so perhaps instead of having sides one piece Have each corner with a motor a separate flex PCB so it has more give. An Idea for more torque is instead of having rotors in the main PCB. You used a separate PCB as a daughter board for each rotor? Similar to how you mount the micro controller. Then you can have the more torquey rotors/coils with the same car?

    Reply
  7. You could add some sort of gear reduction or add together the power of multiple motors into one wheel. It kinda defeats the point, but would still be cool if you ask me.

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  8. Everything is fine except the motors. I see pcb copper and magnets, but no visible silicon steel housing to direct Eddie currents. As a result, very weak torque, and low efficiency for that pcb motor. Might be worth trying a planetary gear reductor.

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  9. Excellent educational video, you're definitely exploring the boundaries of using BLDC motors, one suggestion if I may, is to explore if possible to use a combination of BLDC and dc motors i.e. instead of using magnets try to use another pcb connected to the M board with brushes (if you can find that small) in that way you can reduce the weight & cost of the motor + Possibly achieving more torch by switching this new pcb with different voltage polarity and phase angle. Again great to see another Maltese having a top notch Youtube channel. Proset

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  10. Great stuff – very thin flexible 'fingers' or flaps on the tires would increase traction on rough surfaces I think – also the extra weight of the double lipo probably helped traction (but required more torque – trade off).
    Keep up the awesome work.

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  11. Legal que é uma montagem muito dócil! Parabens!
    Qual seria o limite de tamanho pra esse conceito de montagem?
    Será que dá pra fazer ele ter 23 cm?
    Isso aumenta bastante a usabilidade e poderia receber acoplamentos de ferramentas.

    Reply
  12. I love how you document your process and share with us the failures and wrong decisions along the way. I think that by you sharing openly we learn much more from your experience.
    Thank you for your courage.

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  13. Have you seen @atomic14 "PCB Motor – Why Are Wedge Coils Better Than Round Coils?" Video? I like how he breaks down the math and explains the magnetic simulations using python.

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  14. Make rubber wheels to increase the traction between the wheels and the surface. Another improvement might be to introduce a boost converter (I know you are limited in space, but stacking pcb's might help) to have one battery whilst having a high voltage to power the motors, since you are limited to the resistance of the coils.

    Reply
  15. This is awesome! You have just blown my mind! Here are a few ideas for V2:
    – Larger body to accommodate larger motors and bigger batteries
    – Larger wheels to improve ability to navigate rough terrain and climb obstacles
    – 6 wheel design to overcome thermal constraints on motors
    – Small fan to improve thermal performance and allow higher voltages

    If anyone else has any ideas, feel free to like and comment below so he sees! 🙂

    Reply
  16. I was wondering if combining this with your pcb jumping motor could provide a way for the rover to get over larger terrain and obstacles. The biggest problem would be finding a power source strong and small enough and a way to keep it from overheating, but I think it could be a feature in version 2 or something similar

    Reply
  17. Some of your trouble with traction may be coming from lack of mechanical compliance. In essence, your box structure is too stiff near the PCB motors. It might be worth exploring ways you could isolate the stators from the rest of the slab sides in such a way that each stator/rotor/wheel stack could flex a bit about a horizontal line. I don't think you want any flex on a vertical line since that would interfere with the skid steering geometry.

    Another approach would be to keep each differential wheel pair rigidly aligned with one another but provide axial flexure between front and back. This would eliminate most of the suspension geometry problems the rigid box structure imposes that prevent the wheels from maintaining contact with the ground. Earth moving machinery (such as the ubiquitous "Bobcat") solve the suspension geometry with lower pressure tyres that provide the flex I mention above, but with your robot the limiting factor would be available motor torque, as you discovered with some of your soft/wide wheel iterations.

    Reply

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