Robotic platform that lasts for many hours

As I mentioned before, we built a robot for a science olympiad competition.

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Even though the competition only lasts 3 minutes, my son used the robot a lot for two weeks to practice.

What we discovered is that the tracked chassis just is not built to last, the track stretched after two weeks and started slipping.

Anyway, the reason for my question is that I decided to buy a surveillance robot for my warehouse, with a camera and a LED light mounted on an arm, that I would remotely drive around my warehouse from home to look at various corners.

I have no problem building a control system, however, I want to buy a wheeled chassis that would not be a cheap Chinese imitation of a real product, and that could be capable of lasting for several hundred hours of driving. I can build one myself if necessary, but I wanted to check with you guys to see what you think.

The easiest would be to make a skid steer type 4WD wheeled platform.

It would drive on the concrete floor, maybe over extension cords and such.

Any suggestions for something that would be a quality product and capable of lasting up to 1,000 hours of use?

i
Reply to
Ignoramus4444
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Ignoramus4444 fired this volley in news:HaGdnaJfpLC1O6 snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:

Ig, I built one once for doing robotics lectures that had a similar quality of construction as you wish. I used wheels/tires designed for hand-pulled golf bag carts. They're small enough to be managable in that sort of platform, yet large enough in diameter to easily handle small obstacles (up to about an inch high).

I don't know of any commercial ones, because I'm not in that aspect of my electronics hobby now for over 18 years.

Lloyd

Reply to
Lloyd E. Sponenburgh

Your robot lacks a tensioning idler in the track system. Perhaps a spring loaded wheel between the two wheels and pressing upward.

Paul

Reply to
Paul Drahn

Convert an electric wheelchair - you can usually get them on craigslist for a few hundred bucks.

Reply to
randallchaas

Hit craigs list or similar and look for one of the 2/3 wheeled mobility scooters. Drive system in place you would need a servo for speed/travel direction. Another for steering. Load capacity would be more than you would likely need.

Reply to
Steve W.

I'll second the wheelchair or mobility scooter. Those things are generally built very well and will have power (and bearings, etc) to spare.

OTOH, if you want the real deal, check out

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Yes, those are the same people who make the roomba vacuums, but this is a whole different world.

Jesse

Reply to
rangerssuck

Why not a bunch of cameras and a motion-activated DVR? This stuff is pretty cheap on the surplus market.

Reply to
rangerssuck

How tough and durable can you afford?

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-jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

I took a temp job fixing those, and encountered a few users who had fallen through the cracks and couldn't get Medicare to pay to fix them. Thus I didn't salvage any repairable scrapped parts to make a robot, although they would be very good for that purpose.

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Reply to
Jim Wilkins

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