Robot Parts Are Expensive

Most of our earliest efforts pertained to finalizing the mechanical design of the robot so that we could begin purchasing and machining parts. I am hoping to get our proposal power point presentation posted to this blog so that everyone can see what we are planning to accomplish.

As it turns out autonomous robots require a whole lot of expensive parts. We have spent the last several weeks searching the internet for parts. The main items are the following:

aluminum rims [wheels] (x4)
snow tires (x4)
electric motors (x4)
motor controllers (x4)

Batteries (x9)
Battery Chargers (x3)

central processing unit
incline and temperature sensors
GPS reciever and antenna
Radio Modem, Tranciever and antenna (x2)

Aluminum stock for machining parts

The majority of these items will be ordered over the course of the next week. I am working on the communications systems: the GPS reciever and the wireless radios. I have included images of them for your browsing pleasure. Hopefully my collegues will see fit to post images of the other parts.

As this post implies these parts are expensive. We have allocated nearly $1000 of our $1400 budget to purchase these items. This however covers all of our big expenses. The remainder of the money can be spent on miscellaneous parts and testing equipment.