Figure 1: An R1 rover posed with an RC transmitter.
Aion Robotics, a developer of autonomous robotics platforms, has released an autonomous rover that features a RoboClaw motor controller. The R1 rover is an autonomous rover designed for educational and research tasks. The R1 comes in two flavors, one based around the PixHawk autopilot system and another version based around the NVidia Jetson platform running the popular Robot Operating System (ROS). The rover can be operated remotely via RC system or from the ground control software available for the platform. The ground control software can be used for planning and executing autonomous missions and is available for desktops and laptops as well as iOS and Android.
The R1’s chassis is built from sturdy aluminum and keeps all of the electronics safe from the elements. R1’s drivetrain consists of 4 40:1 direct drive gear motors controlled by the fully programmable RoboClaw motor controller. A large 14.8 5.2 Ah battery powers the whole rover and provides a run time in excess of 3 hours. In addition to the built-in functionality of the R1, a variety of sensors can be attached to the robot and their data reported back to the ground control software.
We thank the team at Aion Robotics for choosing to use the RoboClaw motor controller in their R1 robot. We wish them success with R1 and the rest of their product line. To see their full line of products follow this link.
Figure 2: A RoboClaw motor controller as used in the R1 rover.