Kupe Planning

Background

The key features of this robot will be:

• A large base area to allow for expansion (600mm x 400mm)
• Be capable of outdoor exploration so have better motors and large wheels.
• Have a sturdy frame made of aluminium and acrylic.
• Be able to easily add/remove towers and mounting platforms.
• Wiring looms that keep power and signals separated.
• Easily move or add extra circuit boards without major dismantling tasks.
• The robot is aimed at exploration and navigation so no mowing this time.

I have exerimented with many sensors (GPS, Compass, Ultrasonics etc) on moana and do not intend to incorperate them all into kupe. That said, there are several things I will bring forward

• An abundance of 5v, 3.3v and GND connections on a power distribution board.
• Use of an Arduino Mega2560. The extra memory and large number of I/O pins were invaluable.
• Make the robot Radio Controlled from the outset, then add autonomy.
• Telemetry back to a computer (those UARTs in the Arduino Mega come in handy).
• I will design for 24 volt operation from the outset but may drop back to 12v. This is to reduce current consumption.
• Optical Cameras and Raspbery Pi, making use of OpenCV.

I'm not so worried about GPS, but I want to experiment with other forms of navigation. The compass-enabled PID locomotion control used in Moana worked extremely well. I may reuse some of those techniques.

Moana had many software modules. The Arduino IDE does not work well with multiple files as they all have to be in one directory. I will endevour to build all the software as libraries wherever possible so I can reuse them more easily. This means making the libraries fairly basic and wrapping higher level functions in arduino files.

September 2025