Off-road robots!!!

[roksraka]

I'm planning to build an off-road monster truck (kind of) robot. It should navigate GPS waypoints and avoid any obstacles along the way (mini DARPA). It has to be slow, rugged, strong and measure about 17 inches in length (maximum)! How can I make my chassis for the robot? Can I buy a RC monster truck and customize it? Which one should I buy? What do you recommend? Please reply!

(I also own a BS2. What other electronic components do I need?)

Thanks!

[GearMotion]

That sounds like fun! I hope you take videos and are willing to share.

Many people have modified RC monster trucks as robots. That is a very valid approach.

[galannthegreat]

I would choose some sort of RC truck chassis, due to the fact that they usually have decent suspension. But that is a very vaigue way of choosing one, so I'll probably recommend that you get something that is not too expensive, something that may find at Walmart or maybe even Radioshack/The Source(if you're Canadian) that is on sale or reduced in price.

The BS2 is a very popular "microcontroller", just do a search on Google and see what comes up. Because as I say... "The internet is a universe of knowledge", as I type this I've gotten about 5 million hits on "BS2".

Hope this helps

[Soeren]

Hi,

[...] It should navigate GPS waypoints and avoid any obstacles along the way (mini DARPA). [...]
How can I make my chassis for the robot? Can I buy a RC monster truck and customize it? Which one should I buy? What do you recommend? Please reply!

(I also own a BS2. What other electronic components do I need?)

The above quotes tell me that you haven't build a 'bot before and that makes it a very ambitious project.
I would recommend starting off with a lesser project, i9n order for you to grind your fangs a bit before the big one.

Also... GPS nav is not really suited to short distance robots, as the reading can vary 50 meters or more when keeping the receiver in the same spot.