Here, you will find all the essential components of our N10 robot available as .stp files, allowing anyone to build and customize the robot.
Our robot is a rover equipped with a Rocker-Bogie suspension system, inspired by the Mars rovers and the open-source Stair Climbing Rover project by WildWilly. We have modified, enhanced, and completely redesigned various components to meet our specific requirements.
The main body of the rover is assembled using 3D-printed segments combined with M5 threaded rods. This design ensures a stable, robust, yet lightweight and modular framework. Each segment can be removed individually, making maintenance significantly easier.
Most of the other components are designed for 3D printing and can be assembled using M3, M2.5, or M2 machine screws. For added stability and support, the servomotors, motor mounts, and wheel hubs are secured within the plastic using M3 heat-set inserts.
In our previous version, the motor attachment parts were a major issue. When printed in PETG, they would break in certain situations and had too much flex. To address this, we redesigned the part for the new version and printed it in nylon using an SLS printer. This was made possible through our collaboration with Prof. Dr. Koch from the TH Nürnberg.
All other parts can be printed in PETG.
Enjoy building and customizing your own robot!
The control and alignment of each wheel are managed by Hobby servomotors of the type MG996. These servomotors are addressed via I2C through an Adafruit PCA9685 servo board.
The wheel and motor mounts, as well as the wheel hubs, are specially designed for our needs and printed in nylon using an SLS printer. Due to space constraints, the motor mounts had to be fabricated from steel to prevent rotation, as a 2mm-thick printed part would not provide sufficient strength. We are very grateful to ZF in Nuremberg for their support in this process.
)
Our six wheels are powered by Faulhaber DC motors with planetary gearboxes 2224U018S R IEH2-512 22GPT 44:1, generously provided by Faulhaber for this project. Motor control and regulation, as well as the power supply for other components, are handled by a Kinematics Kit, kindly provided by EduArt Robotik. This kit is designed to be mounted on a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 and can be expanded modularly. The basic components of the kit include:
-
Adapter Board either directly pluggable onto a Raspberry Pi 4/5 or as a standalone EduArt Ethernet controller board, with which you can connect any computer with an Ethernet interface. This gives you the freedom to build the computing power into your robot that you need for your desired application. This board is supplied via the socket strips, i.e. a circuit board with the appropriate sockets for a power supply unit or a battery should be used. The possible input voltage Vin is 12V to 55V. Depending on how many motors are connected, the power supply must be able to supply higher currents. High-current batteries are recommended for operating a robot (min. 8A).
-
Motorcontrollers can be plugged in directly. This allows you to control the speed of 1 to 8 motors. The motor controllers are available in two versions, single-channel or dual-channel. Up to four motor controllers can be used, i.e. it is possible to use 1 to 4 larger motors (IRMS up to 5A) or 1 to 8 smaller motors (IRMS up to 2.5A). The dielectric strength of the single-channel motor controllers is 55V. The dielectric strength of the dual-channel motor controllers is 35V.
-
The Power Management Module takes over the charge control of a 19.2V NiMH battery pack and also offers an on/off logic. Temperature monitoring of the battery uses an integrated 6.8kOhm NTC. Never connect a battery other than the one supplied by EduArt.
-
The Auxiliary Power Supply Module provides additional voltage levels with which you can supply additional devices. The permissible operating voltage is between 15V and 36V.
Warning: The Raspberry single-board computer is supplied directly via the socket connectors. Never connect an external power supply for the Raspberry via USB-C.
We also use an additional module to distribute the motor driver board’s connections to the rocker elements.
The power and voltage supply is provided by a NiMH, 19.2V, 4.5 Ah battery pack. Although Nickel-Metal Hydride batteries are significantly heavier than comparable Li-ion batteries, they have much lower risks of fire and explosion. Additionally, these batteries are more maintenance-friendly, which outweighs the disadvantages for us. For powering the Raspberry Pi 5 and the servomotors, the voltage is stepped down using DC-DC converters, as described in the Motor Control section. Specifically, for powering the servomotors, we use an additional DC-DC converter UWS-5/10-Q12P-C on our board that supplies the servos on the PCA9685 board with 5V at 10A as an external power source.
The robot is equipped with two cameras:
- Front Cameras: Mounted in the first conector element of the robot arm is a IMX179.
- Gripper/Rear Camera: A USB camera module OV2710 is mounted on top of our gripper modul. The camera can also be used as a rearview camera.
All cameras have been recycled from older projects.
In our GUI, users can switch between the different camera feeds with the press of a button.
This section provides a brief description of the simple robot arm mounted on the N10 robot.
The main components include:
-
Three powerful Servomotors with aluminum brackets: These form the basic structure of the arm.
-
Laser distance sensor, build into the gripper: VL53L0X
-
Gripper: A simple gripper controlled by a Hobby servomotors of the type MG996.
-
Control: The arm is controlled via I2C using an Adafruit PCA9685 servo board.
-
3D printed segements between the servos.
| Component | Unit price | Quantity | Total price | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MG996 - Servomotor | 6.00 € | 7 | 42.00 € | Amazon |
| ANNIMOS 25kg Servomotor | 21.9 € | 3 | 65,97 € | Amazon |
| EduArt Kinematics Kit | 786.75 € | 1 | 786.75 € | Eduart Robotik |
| Faulhaber DC motors with planetary gearboxes | 209.20 € | 6 | 1255.20 € | 2224U018S R IEH2-512 22GPT 44:1 |
| Raspberry Pi 5 8Gb | 86.50 € | 1 | 86.50 € | berrybase |
| VL53L0X | 7.49 € | 1 | 7.49 € | Amazon |
| USB camera module IMX179 | 49.90 € | 1 | 49.90 € | berrybase |
| USB camera module OV2710 | 33.40 € | 1 | 33.40 € | berrybase |
| PCA9685 Servomotor Drive Module | 6.50 € | 1 | 6.50 € | Amazon |
| Bambu PETG Filament 1 kg | 16.99 € | 4 | 67.96 € | Bambu |
| Maschine screws (M2, M2.5 M3) | 24.65 € | 1 | 24.65 € | Amazon |
| Heat-Set Inserts | 8.99 € | 1 | 8.99 € | Amazon |
| TOTAL: | 2436.31 € |
The total price of all components is very high, but most of the components are high-quality products that can usually be replaced very easily with comparable, significantly cheaper components. For example, simpler Pololu motors can be used instead of Faulhaber motors. It should also be mentioned at this point that some of these components, were already available from previous projects at our school and have now found a new use. We would also like to thank Faulhaber, EduArt Robotik and Siemens for making their components available to us free of charge.
For more details on software control, please refer to the software section.