• 1
    Assembling the Chassis

    The kit comes with extremely easy-to-follow instructions for putting it together. In addition to 4 simple structural pieces, it features many different mounting holes that can support boards such as the Raspberry Pi and Arduino Uno. I started by getting the suspension attached on each side of the chassis, and then put the wheels on. After that I simply screwed each piece together and added the tracks.

  • 2
    Creating the Electronics

    I decided to use a Teensy 3.5 for the brain on my robot, as it could support multiple serial connections and ran at 120 MHz (compared to 16 for an Arduino Uno). Then I attached the GPS module to the Serial1 pins, along with a Bluetooth module on Serial3. The L293D was the best choice for a motor driver, as it supports 3.3v in and 2 motors. Last was the servo and ultrasonic distance sensor. The chassis supports one microservo on the top, and in addition to that I glued on an HC-SR04 due to its low power usage and ease-of-use.

  • 3
    Making the App

    I wanted this robot to have both manual and autonomous capabilities, so the app provides both. I started by creating four buttons that controlled each direction: forward, backward, left, and right, and also two buttons for switching between the manual and autonomous modes. Then I added a list picker that would allow for users to connect to the HC-05 bluetooth module on the robot. Finally I also added a map with 2 markers that displays the location of both the user's phone and the robot. Every 2 seconds the robot sends its location data via Bluetooth to the phone where it is then parsed. You can find it here https://github.com/having11/RCTankApp