Embarking from its origins with a set of simple metal tank chassis, ran using the Arduino Microcontroller. It was then only able to do obstacle avoidance. With time, the Arduino was swapped out for a STMicroelectronics board (STM32) during a Real Time Operating System Course. The program was a mess then, but the tank was later enhanced with video streaming capabilities, voice recognition, ethernet control - which allowed me to control the tank from either a Mobile device or computer as long as internet access is available.

 

The latest iteration uses a ESP32 based MCU, and the latest addition of a LCD screen and GPS module also allows for a coordinate system which tracks and records the tank's vectors and motions based on its GPS location. The NEO-6m GPS module module was one of my best purchases - it's a GPS module capable of tracking up to 22 satellites, over 50 channels. But thats not all; It is capable of performing location updates up to 5Hz (5 location / second), and its U-blox 6 positioning engine also has a Time-To-First-Fix (TTFF) of less than 1 second.

This is insane considering this module only costs 12 usd.

One big change was also that I've abandoned using breadboards and lameass jumper wires, and went for etched prototype PCBs + 3D designed and printed parts. 

It is not considered autonomous as the tank does not fully know where it is when indoors, since the indoors GPS Fix is trash.

Future plans are to add Lidar, and possibly a turret. Core wise i'll be shifting from MCU to a full blown SBC - the NVIDIA Jetson Nano, which will grant me processing prowess to execute computer vision functionalities. Will be updating the space below with these future implementations, and revamping this page once the entire project is completed. This project has spent/wasted alot of my 3d printing filament + this page is pretty messy but it is what it is, till the project's completed :)

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