eeerover : a rugged-terrain rover with custom-made sensors.
A WiFi-controlled rover built for a first-year university project. The task: navigate rough terrain and identify “rocks” by detecting the signals they emit — RF, ultrasound, infrared, and magnetic fields. Each rock emitted two of these, and you had to figure out which.
Constraints
- Had to fit through a 300mm gap
- Budget: £50
- Controlled remotely over WiFi via a phone
How we built it
- ESP8266 as the brain, programmed in C++ through the Arduino interface
- Custom PCBs for sensor interfacing
- H-bridge motor controller for driving
- Four sensor types: RF receiver, ultrasonic transducer, IR detector, magnetometer
- Data relayed over WiFi to a mobile phone in real-time
The hardest part was cramming all those sensors into something small enough to fit the size constraint while keeping the sensor readings reliable. Power management was also tricky — balancing the ESP8266, motors, and sensors on limited battery.