Comments: Building an Autonomous Vehicle: The Batmobile
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Hi! I'm trying to see this project again working as I would like to make a boat autopilot. I would base the architecture adapting if possible some features mainly a Samd21 system in order to avoid possible stucks of the software running on Arduino Uno . It's also the occasion to study and try to understand how Samd21 could work. I am not expert in electronics and only a hobby lover and of course I'm now facing some difficulties in understanding the code. However I would like to start trying to test the collator sensor only, but I'm finding a lot of troubles. Is anyone in the condition to support me in a handful of tricks to properly understand how the code of the collator works? I have checked the collator code linking a GPS module NEO-7M to a SparkFun Samd21 Mini Breakout , the code being loaded through Arduino IDE , but no good results appear on SerialUSB monitor. I would be very happy to exchange some informations with anyone who faced the same problems if eventually built in the past the same project. I thank for the assistance. Francesco
Hi Nate,
I read this guide to building an autonomous car and is really interesting. I am not a science or math guy but I would like to build an autonomous car myself but I have a few questions that I dont see in the tutorial or that I dont understand. Is there an email where I can contact you ?
Interesting comments about the emulated EEprom. I'm just getting my feet wet with the SAMD21 dev board for the next AVC and I was planning on storing dead reckoning data in the emulated EEprom (flash). I'll be adding an external EEprom now for that task, thanks!
What a great write up, this just makes me want to try and build one.
I am still fuzzy on the need/use/howto of the razor parts, I see them sitting under the car but nothing was really said about how that part fits in.
Still great job.
Thanks!
The original batmobile chassis is all plastic (with some thin metal for steering). We placed the razor chassis underneath and use it for all the strength: steering, chassis, brakes, drive train, everything. The plastic batmobile is just there as a shell.
The four hard plastic razor wheels contact the ground. The razor steering is all metal. The razor drive train is a strong DC motor with chain and sprocket drive. The batmobile had many of these things (steering, a motor, hollow plastic wheels, etc) but they were far too weak for an adult rider. Hope this helps!
That makes sense.
Very cool.
The razor says its only good for 140 lbs ?
How did you get around that ?
The technical way: by sitting on it! Then we silently hoped the razor designers built in a margin of error. So far so good. But you are correct, Razor says children up to 140lbs and we are over that. I've had probably 190lbs people drive the vehicle at speed without problems. Off the top of my head the axle may be the weakest point as it's only 3/4" (20mm) whereas most go-karts are 1" axle diameter.