Consumer quadcopters and drones are really popular at the moment, and I’ve always wanted to fly one of my own. Unfortunately I live in the city centre, so there isn’t really much room to fly a drone anywhere without annoying a lot of people. Besides, most quadcopters are relatively expensive. As a result, I decided […]
There are a multitude of micro-controllers available today, many of them advertised to be ‘Arduino Compatible’. Are these devices really worth considering, or should you just stick with genuine Arduinos? For the past few years I’ve had a chance to work with a good few of these devices, and I’ve discovered many advantages and disadvantages […]
Over the past few years I have had the opportunity to use a number of 3D printers to print some of the parts I had designed. I really like the idea of being able to quickly design a part and then print it into a physical object, within only a few hours. As a result, I […]
Up until now we have looked at all of the individual topics behind self-balancing robots. In this final part of the tutorial, I’ll bring it all together and give you some guidelines to designing and assembling your own robot! Designing the Robot Weight Distribution: Self-balancing robots work on the principle of an inverted pendulum. This means that […]
The most important element of any robot is the controller. Especially for a self-balancing robot, the control program is vital as it interprets the sensor data and decides how much the motors need to be moved in order for the robot to remain upright. The most common controller used for stabilisation systems is the PID […]
In this part of the tutorial I will cover how to get the most performance out of the MPU-6050 Accelerometer and Gyroscope module, using the Motion Apps library. This library is really amazing as the author reverse engineered the MPU-6050 so that most of the processing is done through the DMP on the module itself, instead […]
Over the past couple of weeks I have barely had any free time, due to projects, assignments and the usual college buzz. What spare time I did have, I used to work on a second version of my self-balancing robot. This new concept will be battery-powered, remote-controlled and will have an improved visual appeal! Today […]
I have been interested in electronics and mechanics for quite a while now, so it is only natural that I have accumulated my own tools and equipment over time. But it was only recently that I decided to buy a proper toolbox and some divider boxes in which to store all of my equipment. I […]
If you haven’t already read the first part of this Self-balancing robot series, I would encourage you to do so now! The first section below deals with a little bit of theory behind the sensors, so if you want to get straight to the programming/building part, please feel free to skip to the second section… […]
Why should you build a self-balancing robot? That is a very good question, with an even better answer! Self-balancing systems can be seen in many places and they are essential for the smooth running of numerous types of machines. Some of the obvious include Segways, bipedal robots and space rockets (A few rockets have been […]