About E-Yor
What is E-Yor?
E-Yor is a smart 4WD electric utility carrier I’m building for our rural homestead in Ontario. It’s designed to haul heavy loads across rough terrain — stumps, firewood, tools, sheet goods — 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.
The name
Eeyore was the loveable, slow, dependable donkey from Winnie the Pooh — and donkeys have carried heavy loads for humans for thousands of years. It seemed like the perfect spirit animal for a big, slow, load-bearing robot. The “E” stands for electric. E-Yor.
Why build it?
Commercial utility carriers exist, but nothing quite hits the combination of price, capability, and hackability I wanted. More importantly, this is a chance to build something genuinely useful while learning a stack I’ve wanted to dig into for years — Li-Ion batteries, brushless DC motors, motor control, computer vision, autonomous navigation.
The (current) hardware plan
- Motors: 4× wheelbarrow hub motors
- Steering: Tank turn
- Controllers: 4× VESC motor controllers
- Battery: 48V 200Ah LiFePO4
- Brain: Raspberry Pi 5
- Vision: OAK-D Lite depth camera for obstacle avoidance and person tracking
- RC Control: Flysky GT5 pistol-grip transmitter
- Safety: Hardware e-stop, power-off brakes on motor shafts
- Max. Payload: 250 kg
- Max Speed: 10–15 km/h
- Overall Dimensions: 100cm × 89cm (fits in the back of a Model Y)
The prototype: RoBug
Before committing to the full E-Yor build, I’m building a small prototype using salvaged hoverboard motors, two VESC controllers, a Raspberry Pi, and an OAK-D Lite. Same software stack, smaller scale. The prototype is called RoBug — because when my daughter first learned what a robot was, that’s what she called them. The name stuck.
About me
I’m a mechanical engineer based in Ontario. This is a personal project — part homestead utility, part robotics education, part excuse to have fun with the kids. Follow along as I figure it out.