| Part | Examples | Where to buy | Cost |
Chassis The chassis will support all actuators, sensors and computation units onboard the robot. Ensure you select a chassis that is strong enough for the job.You can also modify existing RC vehicle platforms. |
Traxxas
FG Sportline Losi |
Local Hobby shops | $500- $1600 |
Microcontroller The micro-controller connects directly to the actuators and ensure they operate as commanded. It is the low-level control center. An Arduino is usually an easy board to start with, more experienced teams can design their own custom boards. |
Arduino
PIC Maple |
Digikey
Robotshop Local electronic shops |
$30-$100 |
Sensors Range sensor – detect obstacles in long range, usually used for planning and mapping purposes Obstacle – Localized data, used to determine drive-ability and local path planning Vehicle States – This includes IMU (inertial measurement units), encoders, etc. Localization – Localize the vehicle to the global framework. |
Camera
Accelerator/Gyro/IMU Radar/Sonar Encoders GPS |
Digikey
Robotshop Local electronic shops |
$500- $10,000 |
Computer High level computation platform. A PC onboard can provide significantly more computation power than the micro controller can. The PC can take care of all the high level computation (Mapping and Localization from sensors etc.) and only send specific low level commands to the microcontroller. |
Jetson TX2
PC104 ITX fitPC |
fitPC
Local computer shops |
$400- $1500 |
RC car disk brake The vehicle must be able to be shut off through RC, a soft Estop through RC controller is recommended. The vehicle must also be equipped with hard Estop buttons. Brakes are essential to stopping the vehicle. You can purchase RC brakes from hobby shops, or design your own. Ensure that the robot does not cruise for too long after the estop is pressed. |
Disc Brakes
RC Plane Brakes Estop |
RC shops
Digikey |
$100-$500 |