YouTuber builds Arduino robot Turtle Bot seven times larger

The hobbyist and YouTuber UncleStem has built the often-replicated “Turtle Bot” seven times larger based on an Arduino Uno board. The robot autonomously avoids obstacles using distance detection via ultrasonic sensors. The YouTuber has retained the functional principle of the robot in his oversized version. Individual components such as motors, motor drivers, and servos have been replaced with more powerful versions and clad with dummy housings from a 3D printer to create the illusion of an oversized Arduino robot.

Traditionally, the Turtle Bot is approximately 140 x 140 mm in size. The individual components of the robot, such as motors with attached gearboxes, the motor drivers, the ultrasonic sensors, wheels, and not least the Arduino microcontroller board, determine its size.

UncleStem has rebuilt the motors seven times larger so that they resemble the smaller versions in appearance. Inside the motor housing with gearbox, an electric motor used in children's vehicles is at work. UncleStem designed the corresponding housings based on the original and printed them using a 3D printer. The hobbyist has tried to incorporate as many functions as possible into the larger versions, such as the replicated motor connection terminals.

Small components in a large housing

UncleStem also replicated the L298N board, often used for motor control in Turtle Bots, in a sevenfold magnification and printed it. Into the dummy board, he integrated a more powerful 300-watt version for controlling the two drive motors. To maintain the original look, the hobbyist also recreated the typical screw terminals for the contact connections as well as the plug and socket strips for plug connections. UncleStem also packed a slightly more powerful voltage regulator, used to convert the commonly used 24-volt operating voltage to 5 volts for the Arduino, into a replicated voltage regulator housing. He built the rest of the motor driver board from dummy elements.

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The project also requires an oversized servo to align the ultrasonic sensors for environmental scanning. For this, the YouTuber used a servo with 15 kg of torque from model building and placed it in a larger 3D-printed servo housing. UncleStem kept the ultrasonic sensor as in the original. He only replicated a larger dummy version of the board. He also enlarged the wiring with the enlarged Arduino Uno board, which actually contains an Arduino Nano that the hobbyist had already created in another project, to seven times its original size.

He had a specialized company cut the chassis for the robot from acrylic plastic exactly like the original chassis. UncleStem then installed the previously created oversize components on it and mounted the wheels from a children's vehicle and a furniture castor as a support wheel.

The hobbyist transferred the Turtle Bot code to the Arduino Nano and tested the robot in the apartment and outside the building. The finished oversized version of the Turtle Bot covers an area of approximately 1 x 1 m. The robot functions largely like the normal-sized version of the Turtle Bot. It scans its surroundings with the ultrasonic sensors for free spaces and then moves in the direction of the free space. If a wall or other obstacle blocks the path, the scan is repeated by rotating the sensor. However, due to the robot's larger dimensions, the sensor struggles with blind spots in environmental detection at the same ultrasonic sensor size. More sensors and improved control could increase navigation performance. UncleStem is still looking for a practical solution here.

(olb)