RoBug is a smart electric utility rover I’m building for our rural homestead in Ontario. It’s designed to haul heavy loads across rough terrain — firewood, tools, building materials — and eventually follow me around the property autonomously, carrying whatever I’m working with. I will use it to plow snow, Zamboni the ice on our pond, power tools when I’m away from the house, and pull the kids on their toboggans.
Working out the forces on RoBug's central articulation joint using free body diagrams.
The RoBug prototype design is coming along, built around sheet metal fabrication.
Designing a well supported bed for an articulating vehicle presents some unique challenges.
Building a Fusion 360 model of the RoBug articulation joint to understand how it works.
Testing a cheap hoverboard motor and a $25 controller.
Three suspension designs were considered for RoBug. Here's how I worked through them and what I landed on.
The skid-steered mars rover concept turns out to have two fatal flaws — structural rigidity and steering. Here's how I worked through both.
Working out the power requirements, then evaluating every drivetrain and suspension concept — from tracks to Mars rovers — before landing on a 6WD rocker-bogie derivative.
Our rural Ontario property is beautiful, rocky, and exhausting to work on. This is why RoBug needs to exist.