ArduRoller Balance Bot

ArduRoller is a BalanceBot frame originally designed by Jason Short (described in this Makezine article). Rover-3.5 (and higher) supports this frame as described below.

One issue with this frame is that there is some play in the motors which leads to a slightly wobble when standing still. This could be resolved by using stepper motors

Parts List

• ArduRoller 3D printed frame from Thingiverse.com

• 4” clear platic globe (optional)

• mRobotics Pixhawk autopilot. Other autopilots may also work but they must have GPIO input pins to support the wheel encoders.

• RoboClaw 2x7A motor controller

• Pololu 12V 2.1A 34:1 motors with encoders

• Wild Thumber Wheels with 4mm shaft adapters

• small 3S battery like the Turnigy 1600mAh 3S 20C

• any 8 channel (or more) transmitter like the Futaba T10J

Connection and Setup

• Setup the Roboclaw motor driver:

  • Download and install the ION Studio configuration software

  • Connect the Roboclaw motor driver to your PC with a USB cable

  • Connect with ION Studio then on the General Settings page, set Control Mode = RC

  • From the File menu, “Save Setting”

• Connect the yellow and white wires from the wheel encoders to the AUX OUT 3,4,5,6 pins as described on the wheel encoder wiki page

• Connect the autopilot, motor driver and motors as shown below

Firmware used: Rover-3.5

Parameter file: ArduRoller BalanceBot

This parameter file can also be loaded using the Mission Planner’s Config/Tuning >> Full Parameter Tree page by selecting “ArduRoller-balancebot” from the drop down on the middle right and then push the “Load Presaved” button.