Have you always wanted to build your own robot? It's not as difficult as you might think. You can use one of the many starter kits available or create your own programmable robot with an array of standard electronic components.
For the robot’s electronic brain, you could use a Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or another type of microcontroller. You’ll need a driver board to control motors to make it move, using wheels, tracks, or even legs. Or you could create a robot arm.
Here we explore some of the most popular and interesting approaches to making a robot.
1. Wheeled Robot
The most popular type of DIY robot to build resembles a miniature car, featuring a chassis and typically two or four wheels, sometimes six.
Whether using a Raspberry Pi, Arduino, or another microcontroller, you’ll need a motor driver board to connect it to the DC motors that will spin the wheels. A portable power source is also required, such as a power bank or battery pack.
The chassis forms the body of the robot. For this, you could purchase a kit or build your own custom chassis from scratch using 3D-printed / laser-cut parts or any materials you have to hand.
For tricky terrain, your robot could be equipped with caterpillar tracks or even a rocker-bogie suspension system like NASA’s Perseverance Mars rover.
While steerable wheels can be added, the simplest way steer the robot is to make the motor(s) on one side go faster than the other. Or you could use special Mecanum wheels with angled roller treads to enable it to shift sideways.
Adding sensors to the robot will help it to move autonomously once programmed. An ultrasonic distance sensor will enable it to avoid obstacles, while a downward-facing IR sensor can be used for following a black line on the floor.
You could even add a camera for remote video viewing and object recognition using a computer vision library such as OpenCV.
2. Self-Balancing Robot
A two-wheeled self-balancing robot uses an IMU (inertial measurement unit) with accelerometer and gyroscope sensors to detect movement and rotation. This enables it to adjust its balance accordingly with the motors and avoid falling over.
It takes a good understanding of math and some advanced programming, but the results can be very impressive when your robot manages to roll along and stay upright.
3. Legged Robot
This concept has got legs… literally. Making and operating robot legs is a lot tricker than using wheels, as you’ll need to create flexible leg joints and add a servo motor to each joint to enable it to move with precision. Joints are typically made using 3D printing or laser cutting.
Building a robot with four, six, or eight legs makes for better stability and ease of control than a bipedal one (see below). The downside is that there will be a whole load of wiring involved to connect all those leg servos. Will you make a robot cat, dog, insect, or spider?
4. Bipedal Robot
If you want to make your own Star Wars-style robot, this is the droid you’re looking for.
While simpler to wire up than a robot with a greater number of legs, a bipedal robot has the additional challenge of getting it to balance so it doesn't fall over.
Achieving a smooth walking motion is the key to getting your robot to stay upright as it strides along. Optionally, you may also want to install an IMU with accelerometer and gyroscope sensors (see Self-Balancing Robot above).
For a more humanoid robot, you could add moving arms to your creation, which could even be used to help it stay upright if it starts to fall.
5. Robotic Arm
Most industrial robots are mechanical arms that pick up items and manipulate them. If you want to build your own, there are a few kits available to get you started, such as the PiArm.
As with robotic legs, the arm will comprise several joints, each equipped with a servo motor for precise control of its movement. For maximum dexterity, you want an arm with enough joints—including a rotating base—that it offers at least six degrees of freedom (6DOF).
To build your own arm from scratch, you could use a toy construction set like Meccano or a more dedicated, precision robot-building system like Actobotics.
You could even make your robotic arm mobile by mounting it on the chassis of a wheeled robot.
6. Underwater ROV
As Homer Simpson predicted in the form of song, in the future everyone will live under the sea. Until then, you might want to explore the ocean with an underwater robot, aka ROV (remotely operated vehicle).
First things first: water and electronics are not a good mix! So you’ll need excellent waterproofing of the housing to protect the electronics inside your robot; for extra safety, you might even want to coat the interior wired connections with resin.
To make your mini ROV move, you’ll need brushless motors connected to propellers. While lateral steering is similar to that in a wheeled robot, the addition of a vertical propeller will enable you to control the robot’s depth in the water.
A gyroscope will help for sensing the robot’s orientation underwater, while a camera and light will enable the remote operator to see. Beaming video wirelessly to another device through water isn’t easy, so a cable connection is advised.
7. Robotic Fish
For the ultimate in underwater robots, you could create a robo-fish. Building one is an ambitious project, requiring precision 3D printing and a custom design for the body and movable fins/tail for steering.
Some impressive examples of robotic fish have been created by academic research teams seeking a discreet way to swim alongside real shoals of fish to study their behaviour. A team at CSAIL MIT, created SoFi; this robotic fish features an ingenious tail inspired by the biological system used in tuna fins.
7 Ways to Build Your Own Robot Today: Success
Once you’ve built your robot, there are several ways to control it. You could steer it manually from another device or computer. Or program it to follow a particular pattern of movement: a typical way of using a robotic arm.
The seven types of robot you can build are:
- Wheeled robot
- Self-balancing
- Legged robot
- Bipedal
- Robotic arm
- Underwater ROV
- Robot fish
For your robot to be truly smart, you’ll need to code its microcontroller or single-board computer so it can act autonomously. For this, you will want to add sensors or even a mini camera so your robot can sense/see where it’s going and avoid obstacles.