This is a remote control omnidirectional wheel cart. This cart has unique versatility when maneuvering on flat surfaces. The wheels can move in any direction which looks odd at first if you haven't seen a vehicle move in that manner (as seen in the video).
With this cart you can add attachments depending on the occasion. You can also remove the attachments and use the flat surface on the cart for moving heavy items. This cart has a robotic arm and a seat attachment.
The robotic arm was not necessarily made for this cart but since it was sitting around I thought it might work with this cart. I made this robotic arm before I created this cart so all I needed to do was retrofit it to fit with this project.
The cart has a volt and amp meter on the front that is next to the ON/Off toggle switch. There is also a charging port on the front.
Robotic Arm Attachment
Seat Attachment
Charging Port, Power Monitor and On/Off Switch
Both the Robotic Arm and Seat
The Build
The pictures below give an idea of how I built this machine. I had to find some mechanum wheels that could handle the loads I thought would be applied to it. Then came the motors. Each wheel runs independently so I needed four of them. I did calculations to make sure I wasn't under powered in certain scenarios.
I built the battery pack to fit the current needed to move the cart. The battery was made in modular packs so if I wanted I could split up the series set and use them on other projects. This battery pack is the first one I made with these types of batteries (18650) so it's not an elegant looking battery pack.
I programmed a microcontroller to handle the mechanum wheel movements and added a shunt resistor so I could monitor (front display) how much current the cart was drawing.
Cart Frame with Wheels and Electronics
Electronics Container
Electronics Placed in Container
Frame Ready for Cover to be Added
Top Platform
Top Platform Attached to Frame
Battery Pack
Battery Pack Attached to Shunt Resistor
More about this project
I made this machine because I wanted to work on more projects that used omnidirectional wheels and I really wanted to ride around on something with that kind of maneuverability. It's really fun to drive or drive someone else. It's almost like riding on an amusement park ride when someone else is running the remote control.
While I was calculating the amount of power I wanted, I took into account what it would take to go up an incline.
I built the robotic arm before I even thought of building the cart. I wanted to see if I could build an arm that could pick up heavier items. The robotic arm can pick up heavy things with a specialty hook I made for it (Tested up to 30 lbs and it worked).
