R/C Steerable bristlebot

thingiverse

This is my first version of a R/C steerable bristlebot. I was inspired by the Evil Mad Scientist Labs' design(http://www.evilmadscientist.com/article.php/bristlebot), but I wanted to make a cheap, vector-steerable bristlebot, and this is what I came up with. Powered by two vibrating motors and two toothbrush heads (read the EMSL post to see more about what types of toothbrushes work), this little bot scoots around the floor at delightful speeds. It's like the scrubbing bubbles mascot and a hummingbird had a kid. Video of an early prototype doin' its thang is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bridgewalker/6276616359/in/photostream Instructions I chopped the heads off a couple of toothbrushes and glued them to the bottom of the platform. It doesn't really matter what type or brand of toothbrush you get, as long as the bristles are angled in one direction. It's got to act like a bristly little ratchet. I used whatever vibrating motors I had on hand which happened to be 3V, .5" diameter, .75" long motors, but I've put in a handful of different motors, and the basic concept still works. If the motors are too powerful, the vibrations from one side will drive the brush on the other side, as well, and it'll reduce the 'bot's ability to steer. I hold the motors and electronics in place with a dab of hot glue. For a controller, you can use any R/C controller that's capable of driving two motors. I ripped the guts out of a Deskpet Skitterbot to get a cute little I/R controller with buttons that let me drive the 'bot forward and turn it around, and also have an integrated 70mAh LiPo battery that ran the 'bot for about 10 minutes between charges. You don't need to be able to reverse the motors--vibrations in one direction are as good as vibes in another. I'm sure you could do awesome stuff with an arduino or other micro telling it how to move. Just dial the speed wayyy down, because it's pretty chaotic when the motors are at full power