Choosing a robot chassis kit

The chassis is a fundamental decision when making a robot. Although you could make one using 3D printing or toy hacking, a good 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. Make a robot too small and you will need miniaturization skills for electronics, too large and you will need far more serious power handling and safety considerations. These are both things to avoid for a beginner.Let’s compare some robot sizes:

Figure 2.5 – Robot chassis sizes compared

The chassis photos in Figure 2.5 are at different scales, with the long dimensions shown. Why would some chassis sizes make more sense than others?

• Chassis A is small, only 100 mm, smaller than the Raspberry Pi. Being so small makes...