Cheap Arduino Robot with everything you need

I see a growing number of companies marketing Arduino based robots for well over $100 a piece. Most of these bots have limited capability and still utilize the Arduino IDE for programming. I needed a simple programming platform for my IT students, so I designed and built my own robot to save money. If you are willing to purchase components from Ali Express this is the robot for you. I have attached complete build instructions and Curriculum and .stl files will be on there way soon.

$15 Dollar Arduino Robot

YouTube Curriculum playlist

Programming and assembling the Sumo

This tutorial goes over the finishing steps of the Arduino - H-Bridge line following / Sumo robot. These bot are very simple to build and work very well. My students have adapted this system to walking robots as well. Hope every one finds this useful. 

Link: Assembly and programming tutorial

Making Sumo Wheels (Simple lathe operation)

You can not have a sumo bot with out wheels. This tutorial goes through the basic steps of building sumo bot wheels on a lathe. by no means is this the only way to do it, but with my students it is the most popular.  I like this method because it introduces the junior students to lathe and allows them to work on a very forgiving material. Stay tuned, there will be more sumo bot stuff to come.


The link (google docs)

Building a Sumo Bot Body

This is the third instalment of  the Sumo bot tutorials. This tutorial goes through the fabrication process for building the sumo bot body out of sheet metal. The example bot built is from the Inventor design tutorial posted a few weeks back. There are three more tutorials in this series to come.

Building the bot (link)

How To Make A PCB (H-Bridge for Arduino)

This is the first of my tutorial for the October BCTEA conference where I will be presenting on Arduino. This tutorial kills two bird with one stone. firstly it explains the process of using toner transfer and a t-shirt press to make PCBs. Second it goes through the process of building the H-Bridge circuit that I use when teaching automated sumo robots. The rest of the sumo tutorials will be coming soon.

This is the first time I put something together entirely with Google docs. So we will see how it goes.

Click here for the Tutorial. 


Eagle Schmatic 

Eagle Board 

Introduction to Sumo Robot Design

This is both an introduction to Inventor and an introduction in to sumo robotics. The idea is that students run through the tutorial learning how to design a sumo bot. once this tutorial is completeted students have to design their own bot. The simplicity of the tutorial keeps the kids designs simple. Watch for more sumo tutorials in the near future.

Get the file here!

ROV student project

Have you ever wanted your own submarine? The Beatles sure did. This is a great design project for students. they have to use AutoDesk Inventor to design a ROV (remote operated vehicle)
The goal of this project is to complete a ROV that can complete a task. The task normally consists of moving things, but obstacle courses and racing are also possible. This project consists of 5 parts, design, construction, testing, refining, and competing.
These projects work very well with grade 10 -12 students. It covers all of the fundamentals of Autodesk Inventory and design.

ROV design files

Arduino Line following sensors

Here is another activity that i use for my line following robots. it gives the students the opportunity to build their own sensor system form scratch. Before starting this tutorial students should have already completed some introduction to Arduino.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14upa70FQZ1VnNYlHyFvbKSDfPra1xiAjmBJ0fOLK8kQ/edit?hl=en&authkey=CNGPk6UK