Choosing a robot chassis kit
The chassis, like the controller, is a fundamental decision when making a robot. Although these can be self-made using 3D printing or toy hacking, the simplest place to start is with a chassis kit. These kits contain sets of parts to start your robot build. A chassis can be changed, but it would mean rebuilding the robot.
The internet has plenty of chassis kits around – too many. So how do you choose one?
Size
Getting the size of a robot right matters too. Make too small a robot and you will need miniaturization skills for electronics; too large and you will need far more serious power handling. These are both things to avoid for a beginner:
Figure 6.1 – Robot chassis sizes compared
We can compare different robot sizes from the chassis photos in Figure 6.1:
- Chassis 1 has a diameter of 11 cm and just about fits a controller in but is too tiny. Being so small makes it hard to build your robot. Squeezing...
