Show HN: Q-Octo – We reinvented the wheel with a compact endurance rover (opens in new tab)

(github.com)

8 pointsbritannio1y ago2 comments

Hello, inspired by Q-Whex [1], we built Q-Octo, a compact rover with eight quasi-wheels (160° cut out). The wheel design enables the rover to climb over larger objects while rolling smoothly on flat ground. Q-Octo uses four drill batteries, two Xiaomi Cybergear motors (vs 6 motors for the Q-Whex), two Raspberry Pi Pico’s (one with WiFi), a Pimoroni Pico display, and a variety of 3D-printed & laser cut pieces for the body.

The rover can be configured via its Wi-Fi access point as it hosts a web socket server with mDNS and a captive portal. Messages are encoded via Flatbuffers.

It is driven manually via a radio transmitter with a custom UI that we made using Lua & EdgeTX. Autonomous navigation can be achieved by hooking up a single-board computer via UART.

We are four students who built this as one of four modules in the final semester of our undergraduate degree. Search ELEC6212 on YouTube to see what our peers got up to. Britannio, Josh and Niall studied Computer Science, and Alfie studied Electronic Engineering.

Everything is open-source and we made a Discord server [2] to support people interested in creating their own Q-Octo. Nonetheless, we intend to refine the design and commercialise Q-Octo this summer if there is sufficient interest. Would you like one? Are you using a comparable rover? Advice here would be useful :)

A YouTube video with development progress and our test runs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PIdxYJO_Ck

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJHbiZUROM8 [2] https://discord.gg/2d6yUmEQwZ

2 comments

jshreder1y ago

I like this -- I wonder if an articulating frame like the Leo Rover [1] would improve the all-terrain capabilities?

[1] https://www.leorover.tech/

britannioOP1y ago

Quite possibly. The simplicity of this design is what allowed us to complete it in the time frame we were given. Q-Octo has similar dimensions but drives ~4x faster, has 3x the battery capacity and likely provides more torque to the wheels. Improvements to the design are already in the works!

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