The main idea of this article is to explain the basic concepts about the 3D Printable Rover architecture.

If you have a 3D printer and are planning to build a rover, robot car, radio controlled tank, or as you would prefer to call it, you are in the right place.

NOTE: You can find the main page of the project, with the index of related links and articles here.

This project was created to leverage re-usability, so if after creating a rover you want to reconfigure or re-purpose it, you can, without needing to start from scratch again and again.

There are two main concepts that we need to get familiar with:

Mounting Points

Mounting Points are places in the rover architecture were you can connect blocks.

They have a name, and a connection configuration. It’s name allows you to know what blocks fit into that specific place.

Blocks

Blocks are what you can connect into a Mounting Point. Block names start with the Mounting Point name they fit into.

For example the InnerTrackFrame – DCMotor is a block designed to host a DCMotor, and it fits into the InnerTrackFrame mounting point.

---

Available Mounting Points in the Architecture

InnerTrackFrame Mounting point

This mounting point is design to host a kind of block that acts as main chassis of the rover and can contain the motor you choose to use. An example block that connect here is the InnerTrackFrame – DCMotor.

This is the list of InnerTrackFrame – blocks available

• InnerTrackFrame – DCMotor
• InnerTrackFrame – 360 Servo (TBD)

 

Shell Mounting point

The Shells are the front and back of the rover. You can choose the shell block that fits your need the better. As front and back are symetric,  you can use any shell block on both front and back mounting points.

• Shell – Blank
  • As the name says, this is a basic shell, you could use this if you don’t want your rover to have holes you will not use.
• Shell – Raspberry Pi Camera
  • Designed to accommodate a Raspberry Pi camera, you can find more details on it here.
• Shell – Switch
  • Designed to accommodate a switch so you can turn on/off your rover without using the main area for the electronics. More details here.

Cover Mounting point

The Covers are the top and bottom of the rover. You can choose the cover block that fits your need the better.

This is the current list of covers:

• Cover – Blank
  • As the name says, this is a basic cover block, you could use this if you don’t want your rover to have holes you will not use, and were able to fit all your hardware within the rover.