Build Self-Driving RC Car Robot [DIY]

Kids and Adults alike, love the RC cars and what these crazy machines could do. You can buy one that accelerates faster than your regular car, it can drift, skid and jump like no other.

RC cars all about fun and being in control. However, it can still be fun when it has its own brain that can decide where to go and when to take turns and at what speed.

Randy Sarafan, a Gadget Hacker, built a programmable Arduino based car platform using his RC Car. With the new abilities, car has multiple sensors and is capable of being programmable. It has a PING ultrasonic sensor in the front of the vehicle to avoid collisions but its way more smarter thanks to some DIY Arduino magic. You can program it to do whatever you want. e.g. you can program it to follow a path, use maps to navigate and or crawl a shopfloor and build index. Possibilities are really endless, limited by your imagination.

Converting an RC car into a robot is a quick and easy way to follow if you ever wanted to get into robotics. You’ve to tinker with minimal mechanical parts and hence you can focus more on AI: Artificial intelligence.

In his writeup, he shows how to swap out the brains of your run of the mill RC truck. He uses an Arduino and a motor shield to keep the conversion simple, but this can be done with just about any capable microcontroller you might have on hand. He added a Parallax Ping sensor to the front of the truck enabling it to avoid objects as it drives itself, but since he cut out the truck’s original control board we’re assuming that there’s no way to override the truck’s actions at present.

All you will need is:

(x1) New Bright R/C Monster Truck
(x1) Arduino Uno REV 3
(x1) Arduino Motor Shield
(x1) Parallax Ping Sensor
(x1) Heavy-Duty 9V Snap Connectors
(x1) Size M Coaxial DC Power Plug
(x1) Multipurpose PC Board with 417 Holes
(x1) 90-Ft. UL-Recognized Hookup Wire
(x1) Enercell® Alkaline 9 Volt Battery
(x1) 6″ Heat-Shrink Tubing
(x1) 5-1/2″ Zip Ties

Continue reading here.

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