When was the last time when you shoveling snow from the sidewalk? Now you can take the advantage of technology to move the snow from the sidewalk. The Open Electronics user Boris Landoni shows us how to build a snow plow robot using the well-known Arduino microcontroller and remotely controlled via a controller.
The caterpillar robot is designed around the Arduino Uno board and the user can control it wireless through a Play Station 2 controller. The result is a robust robot built with components available on the market.
The robot runs on caterpillar tracks and in front has a blade to remove the snow. The caterpillar tracks are homemade and are built with four trolley wheels with an outer diameter of 26 cm. Each wheel can bear a weight of 150Kg, which is much more than is needed for this robot.
Inside, the robot has the Arduino Uno board that controls the motor shields and receives data from the remote control via a PS2SHIELD. The motor shield attached over Arduino control three linear motors that move the blade, while the two high power motors that drive the robot in the snow are controlled via a 2x15A DC Motor Driver.
About the PS2SHIELD, this special shield receives and decodes the commands from the Play Station 2 controller.
To see how to assemble the caterpillar robot, check this link.