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Moon Rover

January 11th, 2009 Leave a comment Go to comments

A remotely controlled probe with a live feed onboard camera. Features remotely controlled camera turret, drive and steering, and a complex arm.

Datasheet:

Completion date: 27/07/2008
Power: electric (Power Functions)
Dimensions:  unknown
Weight: 1.3 kg
Suspension: pendular bogies
Motors: 7 x PF Medium, 1 x PF XL

This construction resulted from a concept of using a custom wireless live feed camera to have a vehicle that can be controlled from the front of a computer. It used all 8 IR channels offered by the PF system for remote control. The chassis was built around a battery box, and consisted of 4 identical pendular bogies, all driven, and all equipped with separate tracks.

The body housed a motor that turned lights on or off remotely, a motor rotating the camera turret, and the entire arm. The arm was protruding forwards, in order to appear within the camera’s limited field of view while facing forwards. It consisted of two sections, second one could be elevated and rotated lengthwise by 360 degrees, and housed a simple claw mechanism. Finally, the camera turret could rotate through 180 degrees, and the camera could be elevated through 75 degrees. To make it possible to adjust the camera’s position without looking at the vehicle, there was an azimuth marker on the front part of the body. In the same front part of the body was an array of lights, present also in the camera turret and in the arm.

The rover did pretty well, it was able to drive and look around, and to pick up small objects with satisfactory precision. Thanks to the arm’s location, it was easily possible to see the picked object through the camera. I have initially intended this construction to be followed by a line of several other, more sophisticated and more specialised rovers, but this never happened.

Photos:

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Video:

Media reference:

TechnicBRICKs

Categories: Misc. Tags: ,
  1. Sariel
    July 30th, 2013 at 10:06 | #1

    @Daniel
    I don’t think it has a name. It’s just a simple industrial surveillance camera, you can buy plenty of these at eBay. Or, better, you can use your phone instead, like I did here: http://sariel.pl/2012/10/nxt-peeping-tom/

  2. Daniel
    July 30th, 2013 at 09:10 | #2

    @Sariel
    What camera did you use? Please give me the name because I think I would really like that camera.

  3. Sariel
    December 10th, 2011 at 10:38 | #3

    @SPARTA
    Not much, it was mostly for the fun.

  4. SPARTA
    December 10th, 2011 at 03:48 | #4

    How useful was the camera?

  5. Sariel
    September 18th, 2011 at 01:02 | #5
  6. Mecho123451
    September 18th, 2011 at 00:40 | #6

    You glued the camera to a brick… By my rules that counts as not a purest. Anyway do you know of any digital live cameras about that size?

  7. Sariel
    August 14th, 2011 at 22:38 | #7

    @Mecho12345
    I am a purist. Guess you missed that fact.

  8. Mecho12345
    August 14th, 2011 at 22:06 | #8

    Wow cool one thing you should of done is slice a pf extension wire in half, get the 2 + and – cords out and put them on the camera so you have a camera that is powered by a battery box. (unless your a purest)

  9. saberwing
    May 10th, 2010 at 18:09 | #9

    you can actually have more than 8 channels for a pf system. also, why lego does not make stuff this awesome is beyond me

  10. Sariel
    March 6th, 2010 at 08:40 | #10

    @Tim
    Analogue to digital signal converter and a software called EZ Grabber.

  11. Tim
    March 6th, 2010 at 00:04 | #11

    waht did u use to capture the video from the wireless camera?

  12. Sariel
    December 3rd, 2009 at 17:26 | #12

    @tinesubic
    Try eBay, look for industrial surveillance cameras.

  13. tinesubic
    December 3rd, 2009 at 17:04 | #13

    Where did you get that camera? I’m really interested in buying one.

  14. Sariel
    November 13th, 2009 at 20:40 | #14

    @RjbsNXT
    No peeping on girls, remember! 😉

  15. RjbsNXT
    November 13th, 2009 at 18:59 | #15

    I love the raw design of this model and how there are so many functions in such a small space. I also have that camera but the battery connector is broken :(. I am considering building something like this in the future with an onboard camera because it is so useful for spying 🙂

  16. Sariel
    October 2nd, 2009 at 07:20 | #16

    @Isaac
    The font is called Nasalization: http://www.dafont.com/nasalization.font

  17. Isaac
    October 2nd, 2009 at 02:11 | #17

    What is the name of the font? I’m making a compact rover that drives out of a spaceship, and I want a font fitting when I’m done.

  18. sergio
    March 22nd, 2009 at 14:56 | #18

    yes i have them,you mean that rings of the technic 8294 excavator, sounds simple ,thanks

  19. Sariel
    March 21st, 2009 at 16:51 | #19

    @sergio
    Well, you can use a single motor for multiple functions if you have the transmission driving rings. Just like in the latest Lego sets, you can use rings to switch the motor from one function to another.

  20. sergio
    March 21st, 2009 at 16:47 | #20

    very cool

    i want build same as yours but i only have 4 motors, 2 medium and 2 XL
    do you think there is a way to build a moon rover with arm with 4 motors?

    P.S. sorry for my bad English

  21. Sariel
    January 31st, 2009 at 08:54 | #21

    @NoName
    It’s controlled by standard infrared handset, there is no problem with the signal, it bounces off the walls.

  22. NoName
    January 31st, 2009 at 05:52 | #22

    Than you operate yours Rover? After all it not radio system. And you cannot operate it from the standard panel when are in a room behind the computer, when in the meantime it not in visibility radius.

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