Tank Tracked Robot Vehicle with Modular Treads
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 27 ก.ย. 2020
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3D printed tank robot with modular interlocking tracks:
I've been wanting to try this project for a while. Eventually I'll use it to test intelligent robot navigation, but for now we're doing the mechanical build. This is a 3D printed tank tracked vehicle with interlocking modular flexible tracks printed in TPU. It seems to work ok although it would probably be worth trying a higher shore hardness of TPU.
The rest of the chassis is based on two bits of 2020 aluminium extrusion with 3D printed mounts and 8mm ID skate bearings on each wheel.
Get the CAD and code from: github.com/XRobots/tracks
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Former toy designer, current TH-cam maker and general robotics, electrical and mechanical engineer, I’m a fan of doing it yourself and innovation by trial and error. My channel is where I share some of my useful and not-so-useful inventions, designs and maker advice. Iron Man is my go-to cosplay, and 3D printing can solve most issues - broken bolts, missing parts, world hunger, you name it.
XRobots is the community around my content where you can get in touch, share tips and advice, and more build FAQs, schematics and designs are also available. - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
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Can you make a robot that makes a cheese sandwich?
@@johnnyjacky2767 mmmmmm yummy
Nickel Hydra indeed
@@johnnyjacky2767 like a toaster? Lol
PyreGnome yes
Ivan: At last a worthy opponent our battle will be legendary.
Who?
@@AlexanderTheMiddle ivan miranda I think. He built a human sized 3d printed tank. All in red filament too lol.
Red tanks gang
They have done colab projects last year..
@@AlexanderTheMiddle you gotta check him out he's fantastic
For the tracks, in heavy machinery they tend to put the drive at the back so that as you move forward the tention of the belt/track is under the weight of the machine, this might help for the turning problem.
If you don't understand what I'm saying check images of traked loaders, tractors, excavators etc.
I'm not sure you yourself understand what you're trying to say. The location of the driven sprocket doesn't change anything other than the length of track that's under tension. The weight of the machine is always on the tensioned track, since the tension is created by the bit of track that touches the ground.
The main difference between a front and rear drive belt, is the upper part of the tracks, which don't touch the ground. On a front-drive machine, this bit is under tension when driving forward. On a rear-drive machine, this bit is not under tension when driving forwards, or at least not because of the propulsion system.
The main argument for the location of the driven sprocket is very simple: Where's the engine, where's the gearbox. If the engine is in the rear, like it is for most heavy equipment, the driven sprocket will be in the rear, simple as that.
Also: If there even was any advantage to having the driven sprocket be on one side of the machine, that advantage would completely disappear as soon as you drove in the other direction.
@@timderks5960 ,
In the case of this robot, the tracks are flexible so the more you tension a longer part, the more it will stretch. What I want to avoid is to make the part of the track in contact to the ground have slack when climbing an obstacle in the most favourable direction which is most likely forwards.
As you said, if you change the direction, it won’t matter what side the propulsion is on but it’s better to improve the direction you will be traveling the most. Turning on spot won’t change anything.
I totally agree with your second paragraph, I can also add that on a front propulsion system, the top of the track is under tension, adding unnecessary wear and tear on the top bearings and the rear sprocket on an excavator/dozer.
In your third paragraph, you say that the engine and gearbox is usually mounted at the rear, which is true for excavators usually (I have never seen a dozer or tracked tractor with a rear mounted engine), but excavators are moved by hydraulics (hydrostatic) so the argument of the engine and gearbox doesn’t apply here.
Hope you understand, Thanks.
@@rodeynsrene1007 Since the track that's in contact with the ground is always under tension, regardless if it has been stretched or not, it will never have slack under normal circumstances. The only slack will be in the section between the driving sprocket, and the last point of contact with the ground, i.e. the last point creating tension, basically in the part of the track that's being "pushed". This track may flex a bit, but the weight of the robot is so minimal that the flex will also be very minimal. The belt riding up on a wall will stretch it much more.
About the hydrostatic drives: That's true, but I specifically didn't mention those, because I have a suspicion that the drive sprocket position in those machines is purely based on "how it used to be done", back before they had hydrostatic drives. Maybe there's a small logistical benefit in terms of shorter hoses, or better protection with the hoses being in the back of the machine, but I don't know about that. Dozers indeed have a front mounted engine, but their gearbox protrudes way into the machine (on older models, the driver usually sits on top of it), so the end of the drivetrain is still in the rear.
The only machine I can think of where there genuinely is no reason at all (from a construction point of view) to have the sprocket in the rear, is on a tracked excavator, since it hardly matters for those machines which way of the undercarriage is the front.
@@timderks5960 Hello again,
Simply tell me what advantages front drive system have over rear drive system, for the small robot, I don’t think it’s to complicated to change the direction so it can be either. The better option, even if it has a few advantages is the superior and probably the best option.
@@rodeynsrene1007 I never said front drive is better. I said there is no difference. The only difference there is, is probably wear related. A longer portion of the tracks is under tension, so more wear on pins and track links. There's tension on the upper track, so more tension on the idlers there, thus more wear. The advantage probably is that it's harder to have a track come off. All these things are extremely minimal though, and if there were two variants of each machine, one front drive, on rear drive, I don't think any of these aspects would matter to buyers.
This has been one of my favorite projects thus far. All its needs is a nerf cannon and its ready for battle! Awesome stuff, thanks for the video!
I want to see you make a Battle Bot and enter it into competition
wow, thank you so much for sharing this. it would have taken me months to work this out
That worked really well at driving over obstacles. First time too! Your intuition is impressive.
That works great!! It needs some bogey wheels down the middle between the main wheels, to take up the slack and provide some suspension
Amazing project! Thanks for sharing! You rock James!
Take a look at diamond steering for a really nice tank mixer! Basically plot both throttle and steering then rotate the Vector 45 degrees and this will give you your left and right output. Great video!
Great video, as always. To increase the surface area of the treads in contact with the ground, which reduces the PSI , and the friction, it needs idoler / bogey wheels in between the large wheels. This allows the treads to slide sideways, with less friction, when turning.
Much obliged! I was thinking of starting a tank-type project too so this is just perfect :)
Good to see you go back to basics with the programming once in a while. A lot of the kinematic modelling etc in other videos goes right over my head.
I absolutely love this channel!! James wakes up in the morning and is like "You know what...i think i'll make a super cool RC tank/car and show the whole world how to make it too!" Just BRILLIANT :-D
yay, turning on the spot will be a nice add on to my tank, big thank you :)
i am pretty happy with that too! this is great.
really cool project thank you for this awesome video.
Actually the greatest and most useful video ever James!! thanks (gracias desde España)
Nice idea, but it might be good to also look at the way Lego makes "clickable" track segments. That way you don't need to use flexible material.
I want one of this ... Good job!
Very clever build!
Best channel in TH-cam, greatings from Brazil!!!
That was so cool.
I designed and 3D Printed my own tracked vehicle and also made a video on it. It was great fun but some things were challenging to do :) I had similar problems to you but I did not use an arduino.
Great job :)
I wish the RC cars I had as a child could have looked this cool and their batteries last longer than 10 minutes.
Nice quick little weekender project, however, you make everything look so easy, Well done using inspiration from those PowerTwist V-Belt which work rather good for tooling, and now we see they are also a good idea for toy tanks.
You can add some Kevlar fiber sold for control lines in RC vehicles -- it is strong and designed to have almost zero stretch. Thread these through the track links. That gives the individual links the springiness to react to impacts, but the belt as a whole will not stretch.
I've been trying to figure out how to get this to work for a recent project. I have a six channel transmitter and receiver so I went into the project assuming I would be able to utilize all six channels and could reconfigure the transmitter to use up/down on both sticks for each individual motor. I -could- but the way you have done it makes much more sense. I'm using a heavy duty Pololu speed controller for the two DC motors and the code provided by them also wants to use the only two hardware interrupts I get with an Arduino nano. I'm hoping I don't actually need them to simply control the motors, but maybe your next video in this series.. from two years ago solved that same problem. Great video even two years later!
Very cool.
As soon as I saw those links I knew you were making a copy of the Powertwist system; I have quite a few of those on my machine tools.
I made the mistake of assuming they were rigid plastic. I was completely baffled.
awesome keep it going
If I may make a suggestion to help with grip and tension. Tanks tend to have idler wheels in the middle to help keep the center of the track in contact with the ground. Granted we're talking about multi-ton vehicles versus an aluminum and plastic rc chassis, but I believe it would help.
I like the idea to build caterpillar rover, but to benefit using a belt instead of tires... 1. you need more wheels; 2. the first and last wheels should protrude out to the front and back; 3. you need wider belts, the belt should cover up the wheels; 4. The bottom of the vehicle should look like a boat.
James! XD I love it. Personaly I love wildly over-powered vehicles. I wouldn't look at it as over-powered, just as a prototype for a very powerful vehicle ;)
Thanks for sharing this. I have been wondering how to make a tank style controller using Arduino & brushless motors.
Tank tracks always amaze me! That thing covered with sheet in your right is some other project?
I like that your design leaves space beneath the chassis - I'd consider putting a set of secondary rollers and a suspension system there to further improve rough terrain capability and stabilize the ride for smoother sensor data further down the line. Considering the low mass of the robot, something like a 3d printed flexible lattice would probably serve well as a shock absorber.
So Cool! I love it!
Now make it fly to. (like a drone)
and a cammera.
and a robotic arm.
throw in a laser aim nerf gun.
12:30 I NEED MORE COWBELL!!!!!
For more tension on belt, put bearing pulley pass in middle.
many of the slam tools for ROS can use odometry data, so adding encoder data to the belts seems like a next step.
On little engine, tracks fullmade of caoutchouc tend to be in one piece.
With a large printing bed, it must be possible to print track in one piece, and with dual-extrusion, add more stiff material inside each "foot" of the track.
Youi made a Fastraxx!! Awesome
Finally I understood everything from ur video😂 its rare
You are the best
U could simply have thrown a channel mixer for RC models in there. Those are also used to control delta wings or V-tails if the remote control doesn't have an integrated mixer. That would've done the trick without any additional programming or any additional hardware beside the mixer.
Also, usually there's a way to program ESCs without any programming hardware. It's cumbersome but it does the job. On the ESCs I've used in my RC planes it was done by powering the system up with the stick at full throttle, until 5 seconds in it would enter the programming mode and allow u to change settings one by one. If u lowered the stick to zero right after the "programming mode" signal without waiting for any further signals it would toggle the motor brake. All other programmable options were then indicated by a beep pattern that repeated a few times to give u time to decide, and if u wanted to change the low-batt. power-down behaviour, for example, there would be a corresponding sequence of beeps in different pitches for both throttling back automatically once the battery reached its minimum voltage or downright shutting the motor off.
I'd always keep my ESCs programmed to throttling back instead of shutting down coz getting the motor shut off by the ESC during a high-alpha maneuver would send the plane into an immediate stall and nose-dive, and if that happened at low altitude it would DEFINITELY end in a crash. Slowly throttling back would instead gently lower the nose and send the plane into shallow descent as flying level at a high angle of attack usually takes quite a bit of throttle input.
If ur ESCs have such a programming mode then I'm pretty sure it'll also have an option to toggle that brake-on-reverse function.
I'm working on a robot to run some wires in the crawlspace of my house. Haven't tested the wheels yet on loose sand, but if that fails I'll try those tracks!
Ivan Miranda called, he wants his filament back 🤣
The overpowered motors made this way more fun.
7:32 James, get a "v-tail mixer" you can get them dirt cheap online, as little as $1 or $2 each .. plug it in between the two channels on your receiver and the two motor controllers, and you'll have instant (once you get the plugs in the right order) tank-style steering without any settup or programming or anything, from the cheapest radio you own!
I don't know if James will see this but that's exactly what I need for my project! Thank you!
With a better controller you can get the differental function by default :) Thats how you do it on radio-controlled planes. (Wihtout having watched the full video yet and what you do)
You'll have a better time with the tracks if you raise the drive sprocket and idler pulley off of the ground this would allow you to have bigger flanges on them that will reduce the likelihood of the tracks coming off. In order to do this, you'd need to add 2 or more road wheels. For bonus points, you could add in some suspension and return rollers. The track itself should be flexible but have little to no stretch.
It's worth getting up at six just to whatch your videos
Cool
Great to see a sponsor that both fits the channel and isn't a manipulative freemium game :)
Weird question: Am I correct in assuming that there isn't a concept of front and rear wheel drive when it comes to a tank? Could you have one side's motor at the back and the other's at the front?
Traditionally, no, tanks are driven like what James did here each tread is driven independently. In older tanks there are just two levers, one for each tread, where you push forward on both to go forward. Pull back on either and it reduces power to the tread, causing you to turn. Pull back far enough on either lever and the tread runs in reverse, combine that with one tread moving forward and it spins on the spot.
If you were to put one motor on both treads or have a linked drivetrain across both treads it would mean that when the tank is turning the motor would be driven backwards, stopping any forward movement. With simple tanks like this and older tanks this wouldn't work. Using a special differential transmission that only engages with one tread or the other and the RC signal would control the transmission engagement would work. But this overcomplicates things when just having a split drivetrain and one motor for each track is easy.
Modern tanks (eg: the US M1) have a single turbine engine that splits the torque between the tracks so that the two tracks are not dependent on each other's motion. The steering "wheel" is like an airplane's.
yep - pretty sure you could put the motors either end. Next time I'll be using worm gear motors though which fit better
You need to see the Ivan Miranda's Tank. Will give you a lot of ideas.
Hello, a design for the track that was double wide with two sets of those links you push through may allow for an internal driving wheel rather than external an external flange.
Better yet, may be to have an external driving wheel at the top that does not go near the floor and have some 'runner' wheels on the bottom (that would be internal to the width of the track) under compression.
Your sponsor is brilliant. Literally lol.
The interrupt method to measure the PWM is the cleanest for sure, but what if you need to run expensive timing based computation on the board as well ? Would an RC filter make the signal into a measurable analog value ?
When I saw the size of those motors I smiled lol
Real tanks can move at a surprisingly high speed. I've seen videos of them jumping ramps.
Yasss finally! Now to get a new printer that can print ninjaflex
very very nice 👌👌👌😊
Have you thought about using PlatformIO in Visual Studio for the code? It's really nice to have some other software than Arduino IDE
you need an idler pully with a spring.
Cool. Now make one that can climb stairs.
Awesome =)
The track stretching issue can be solved by not using flexible materials. If you want to get a decent track link without a ton of engineering, use PETG and Ninja Flex in your dual extruder set-up and print a PETG link with an NF "foot" for grip. Alternately, if you think the stretch gives you some kind of benefit over terrain, add more wheels along the frame. You won't need to give them power, they just need to be on bearings so they'll spin freely, but won't let the track stretch too much.
Yeah. I don't see the point in using the method he did if the parts are printed anyway. The flex track is good if your material is stamped from a sheet. If you're going to use any other form of manufacturing, rigid links with/without shoes are a MUCH better option.
I was wondering what your next platform for ROS experiments would be. Neat!
I hadn't seen the powertwist drive belts before so thank you for the info.
I also have another build for ROS, this one will be for getting my head around machine learning/vision, but it's always good to have a few robot bases around.
Awesome project, how about a wiring diagram ?
Any variable inside ISR should be declared volatile. Especially if the variables are read outside the interrupt routine.
If you made tracks covered with bristles would that enable better performance over rough ground and on loose surfaces like snow?
This guy is so boring to watch. That being said this was the most awesome video I have seen. I also learned more about 3D printing, editing, and robotics. Very cool
Oooo. Shiny
That "robot" looks fun!
Hello James,
Please will it possible for you to put a parts list for the electronics ?
Please will it possible for you to show the electronics connections schematics ?
Tracks must be wider than the wheels
Darpa flea goes tracking.....whaaaat no jump
Couldn't you program in logic to the Arduino to automatically handle the brake on reverse functionality?
U r a genius 👏🏻. But u didnt have even 1mil subs for such a longtime, i hate this world 😓
What material is used to print the flexible track pieces?
If you want better turning, ditch the twin-drive in favor of a Merritt-Brown Triple Differential. (Preferably a limited-slip version. You could also use a CVT for a continuously variable turning speed.) And for the steering brakes, maybe use some kind of anti-lock mechanism?
An Arduino compatible chipkit board with a PIC32 with hardware PWM capture and compare would be a great option for this.
I'm curious of what the performance and longevity of these interlocking style belts are, compared to more traditional belts, both grove and tooth, or in the case of tracked vehicles, how they compare to typical chain style tracks. The concept of them seems solid, but in practice I could see them having a variety of downsides; especially longevity, having belt-like material in the form of a chain has to have an unrealistically high wear on the links, which is why chain is typically metal and belts are typically a singular piece.
Hey James bruton I have a question if you could do this I really like your videos but I always have wanted to see the full uncut lengthy project of the builds I mean the full assembly and the programming and even the modeling for them I think it would be really cool to see
And I wouldn’t mind if it was only for like the ten dollar a month Parteon I know I’m not the only person who has wanted to see this process and I think it would be really cool I just find this stuff satisfying and I wish I saw every little part to it
Your open dog project bb-8, the strand beast and the electric rc rocket where my favorite projects you worked on let me say you have inspired me a lot with the stuff you make and work on
What short of Witchcraft is this? You have amazing abilities and an are an Arduino wizard. I wish I could code like you. Thank you for inspiring me.😊
curious about the current draw. Has to be really small.
Hello James, could you publich the complete and actual files at github please. actually I did only find the belt pasr and the incomplete pulley which seems not to be the actual version.
Thank you
Can you make a wheel that can become a set of tracks on demand and vice versa? Because I'd really like to see something that combines the best of both of worlds. All of the speed and agility of wheels, but all of the traction and even weight distribution of tracks.
When is ros robot version 2 coming
you need tentioners on the bottom of the top belt, like a real tank
Please help get this man to 1M subscribers.
What type of motors is he using for the tank tracks?
Can you make an arduino programming series so people who want to learn visually and hands on can learn that way
Hi @James Bruton in future you are maybe planning to build drone with python3 controller ?
What was the rang fo signal ?
Woof
Cool. Now add a Nerf cannon mounted on it.
How long did this take you from start to finish?
try around one or two wheels, per track
you could put 8 legs with two together tracked wheels on the end