DIY Arduino Projects for Both Beginners and Advanced UsersInto Robotics

This is not just an article with everyday robots. This is an article that explore the best DIY Arduino projects for beginners and advanced users. If you’re already involved in a new Arduino projects, all of these should add more inspiration and more fun to your project.

Over the years, the price of components and parts used in robotics decreased allowed us to experiment tons of new ideas at lower costs.

All the projects explored in this article covers a wide range of applications in the robotics area. And because we need sensors, actuators, controllers and many other components and parts, I choose these Arduino projects carefully to include as much of each DIY area. All these projects include ultrasonic sensors, infrared sensors, wheels, tracks, Android smartphones, drones able to detect an obstacle in the air and autonomous control.

For a maker, any DIY project brings a big advantage. All these robots can be upgraded with new features or used as a base point for your custom project. Feel free to share with us your work, and if you feel confident, share your project with us using the contributors link.

Building a Simple Arduino Robot

There is only one way to start building robots, and in this case you can start with a simple robot able to detect obstacles and change the path using a simple detecting system and the Arduino board. The project is a wheel based robot with an ultrasonic sensor attached in the front and programmed to detect any obstacle that may interfere with the path of the robot. The robot is powered by 6 AA batteries with a supply power between 4.8V and 6V.

All the robotic parts can be purchased from the Funduino UNO Robotics Kit, but you can replace any of these components with custom parts.

Balancing Robot (Arduino)

The ‘Balancing Robot’ is a project that operates under the same principle of the popular transportation system called Segway and with the primary purpose to teach you how to use the Kalman filter. The Kalman filter is an algorithm that measure and produce estimation based on several parameters.

The entire movement system is engineered to accelerate and decelerates the wheels to keep the robot in vertical position.

I choose to add this project in this article due to its simplicity, because some components can be printed using a simple 3D printer, and the control can be wireless using a Bluetooth module.

Based on Arduino Mega 2560, two servos and two wheels, the balancing robot is a powerful example how a little robot can be fun and can help you to get started in robotics.

Main components:

  • 1 x Arduino Mega 2560 link;
  • 1 x USB host shield link;
  • 1 x Mini Usb Bluetooth V2.0 link
  • 2 x Parallax Continuous Rotation Servo link;
  • 1 X Dual Use Gyro and Accelerometer Sensor Board (am-2067) link;
  • 1 x Bluetooth transceiver link;
  • 1 x lithium polymer battery link;

Face following RC Car using Android + Arduino + USB Host Shield

The name of Ferrari is entered in the field of robotic cars with an RC Car remote control toy transformed into an autonomous car controlled via Arduino board and a cheap Android smartphone. This project catches my attention due to the implementation way of the Android smartphone. Instead control the robotic car remote using the smartphone, in this project you can install the smartphone directly on the car to build a robot toy able to follow a face, even is a face printed on a paper.

The face detection application is based on the OpenCV library available in the OpenCV for Android SDK version 2.4.7.

Main components:

  • Single board computer: 1 X Arduino Uno link;
  • Shield: 1 X USB Host Shield 2.0 for Arduino link;
  • Kit: 1 X Ferrari 599XX RC CAR link;

Arduino project: Hacking the Attacknid

You can improve your electronics and programming skills using robotic kits, DIY robots, or a mix between these two methods by using a low-cost toy and transform it into a smart robot able to walk and detect objects. In this project is used the Attacknid Hexapod with improvements on the sensor and controller side.

In this project you can find how to transform the Attacknid kit using simple components such as an Arduino Uno, Arduino motor shield and an ultrasonic sensor.

Main components:

  • Kit: 1 X Combat Creatures Attacknid Doom Razor link;
  • Single board computer: 1 X Arduino Uno link;
  • Motor shield: 1 X Arduino Motor Shield R3 link;
  • Sensor: 1 X HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Distance link;

Say Hello To My Little Friend – Zumo

This is another project based on the Arduino microcontroller and the Zumo Robot Kit. The kit is used due to amount of components available, and is transformed step by step into an autonomous robot engineered for maze-solver and space-mapper.

The Zumo Robot Kit has a track-based chassis that stores the motors for tracks, sensors, the batteries, all the electronics, shields and the Arduino board.

Main components:

  • Kit: 1 X Zumo Robot Kit for Arduino link;
  • Motor: 1 X 100:1 Micro Metal Gearmotor HP with Extended Motor Shaft link;
  • Sensor: 1 X Zumo Reflectance Sensor Array link, Optical Encoder Pair Kit link;

Floor vacuum cleaner robot

Using a cardboard, plastic, a lot of melting glue and innovative technique you can build at home a simple DIY floor vacuum robot based on the Arduino board and able to clean your room, or at least it try to clean your room.

The wheels can be built with a 3D printer and then connected by two small DC motors powered by a 5V battery pack. The designer share with us the files of printed components, components that can be upgraded with new dimensions and new features.

Main components:

  • Board: 1 X Arduino Motor Shield Rev3 link;
  • Electronics: 1 X Arduino link;

ArduinoBlueBot

A smartphone device becomes a powerful remote control tool for robots, and this project demonstrates once again how simple is to control a robot via Bluetooth using an Android smartphone and an application installed on the mobile device.

The controller of the robot is an Arduino Uno board programmed to control the differential steering robot. If the Android device is already equipped with Bluetooth equipment, the robot has installed a JY-MCU Bluetooth module for wireless communication with the mobile device. The application has control for moving forward, reverse, rotate, or can stop the robot.

The robot is a smart one since it can detect obstacles using the two ultrasonic sensors and can take decision if the user drives the robot into a wall for example.

Main components:

  • Single board computer: 1 x Arduino Uno link;
  • Bluetooth Module: 1 x JY-MCU Bluetooth Module link;
  • Servo: 2 x Servos modified for continuous rotation link;
  • Sensor: 2 x HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensors for obstacle detection link;
  • Smartphone: 1 x Android phone link;

ArduIMU quadcopter

Reaching the third generation, the ArduIMU DYI quadcopter is now stronger, smarter, and able to do completed automatic flights in unfriendly conditions. With this project, I close the area of simple Arduino projects and I open the area with Arduino project for advanced users.

Is not simple to implement navigation algorithms, as well as using GPS features or keep the drone at a certain altitude based on sonar sensor.

The quadcopter is designed to avoid automatically obstacles based on the information received from distance sensors and 4 infrared sensors with a range of 1.5 meters.

The drone can flight indoor as well as outdoor during a predefined time.

Main components:

  • Single board computer: 1 X Arduino Pro mini link;
  • Motors: 4 X 1811 2000Kv 10grams brushless motors link;
  • Sonar module: 1 X LV-EZ0 link;
  • IR range finder: 4 X Sharp GP2Y0A02 link;
  • Telemetry: 1 X Xbee Telemetry kit 2.4 GHz link;

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