United States Naval Academy        

  US Naval Academy
Amateur Radio Station W3ADO
Long Distance Robot
"Rickover Rover"

The Rover is being built in the Engineering Building Satellite Lab by midshipmen of W3ADO under the cognizance of LCOL Smith and Bob Bruninga/WB4APR, with assistance from Skip Johnson/K3FOR.

Presenting the Rickover Rover (named after the Naval Academy Engineering Department Building named after Father of the Nuclear Navy, Admiral Hyman G. Rickover)

Rear axle and drive motors, top speed is 1.5 mph

Solar panels provide 2 amps each at 12VDC, drive motors draw 7 amps at 6VDC.

The wire tower minimizes shadowing of the solar panels but provides height for the S-band steerable parabolic antenna

Where's his other eye? This robot's head holds the ATV camera, trainable 360 degrees. The jaw also moves.

Close-up of the s-band video transmitter which is relayed to ATV to provide realtime video for remote control

Had to remove the solar panels and tower to replace the original lead-acid batteries with more efficient ones. Visible are the relay circuits for all the motors.

Close-up of the motor relays. Right-left steering uses piggy-back relays with the antenna and camera rotators.

Close-up of the DTMF decoder circuit. DTMF tones are sent on a 2-meter or 440-link to control the robot's motion.


Point of Contact : Skip Johnson/K3FOR/NNN0PEK 
Revision Date :  
URL : http://www.qsl.net/w3ado/