Robotic Snow Plow - Part 2

[@lerikhkl]

I really like your calm disposition! Keep up the good work!

[@wync2203]

hello sir, this invention is pretty good. I'm a warehouse associate in a healthcare supply business and those kind of wheels don't work well during winter. I had very bad experience on those kind of wheels when loading them in the van lol. Having heavy duty/ toothed metal wheel and heavier front could help on your project. Thank you for this video. I learned a lot

[@eformance]

I recommend adding ballast, perhaps come "chains", and most of all, raise the plow when taking the first pass. If you leave 2 or 3 inches behind on the first pass, but you can move the snow, then you've made progress. The other issue is that "scoop" type plows are not very good for plowing. In plow terminology they call that "gather" mode, for gathering piles. In normal mode you want the snow to shed off each side of the plow so that you don't exceed your traction envelope. Start by adding ballast and adjusting your technique.

[@np8781]

Thanks for taking the time to make well-produced videos instead of pushing lots of small ones out.

[@rtpwizard]

I'm impressed, a blower/plow with tracks instead of wheels would do a great job!

[@seoulkidd1]

For the shovel I would use clear plow. They make a plow that fits hand trucks.

[@dgb5820]

I find your videos are professional as your presentation is outstanding even if we are subjected to passive organic marketing

[@sesamsamen1843]

I also made one, but I did a 4WD with chain wheels and chains out of a mini quad. I also put on strong cable ties to the wheels which gives a real good grip in deep snow.

[@sullygully1976]

Why didnt you use mat tracks?

[@bryseanygaming4313]

Can you post plans for this build? I want to build one. Thanks!!

[@LatinDanceVideos]

Nice work. Now to find a better use case for it.

[@AquaCarb]

It should be able to push a 3 or 5 hp snow blower.

[@WV591]

I hate the heat and humidity of Houston but whenever I see snow and what people go through, It makes me stay here. Although here in Texas we could use the RC Snow plow for destroying giant size ant hills.

[@gianniformica8235]

Use power wheelchair ?

[@stressedmember]

an angled plow, perhaps?

[@williamforbes6919]

Have you ever seen the VNH2SP30 motor drivers? You can pick them up on a small breakout for about $6 a peice, and they will handle 30A continuous with 45A peak. A nice feature is that they have current sense feedback built in. We have been using them in a more packaged up form for quite a few years in FTC.

[@RobertCowanDIY]

I've seen them and used them. They're decent for the price, but lack a lot of the features of a full motor controller.

[@williamforbes6919]

Robert Cowan They are a bit of a DIY solution. You are right about the lack of features

[@edferoz8835]

Could u tilt the blade so it pushes to the side it would help

[@TheEngineerC]

there's a robotic snowplow competition in Minnesota each year and what most teams usually do are 4 wheel drive skid steering systems that are really weighed down. my chassis was 700 lbs.

[@RobertCowanDIY]

Oh, cool. Yeah, I was just trying to see if it would work, but it didn't :-/

[@TheEngineerC]

I think if you added some weights to the top of the robot you would be able to push a lot more snow.

[@TheEngineerC]

I understand not wanting to put any more money into it though. Robots are expensive!

[@Sillyzombie666]

i think the shovel is just way too vertical for this to work, maybe if you you had some sort of bucket shovel or a diagonal plow it could work. if you mounted a small tractor blower on it i think you would really have a great final product.

[@takalvert]

Hey Good job 👏

[@mikestrand3747]

Does the pololu need to be plugged into a computer or will it work with rc without?

[@EpicProvider]

no, it's not like an arduino, you can't program it.

[@TimeWasted8675309]

Fun project Robert; we could use that in Vancouver this year. Maybe phase 2 could see a propane tank mounted on top and replace the blade with a flame thrower manifold :) might be a bit slower, but traction wouldn't be an issue.

[@kattasudhir]

the shovel should be at about 45 angle plowing to the side. you need yaw actuator to control the shovel angle. Weight is King on Deere tractors for traction. In your case you can use lead acid batteries for weight.

[@dgb5820]

Are you green screening

[@mrMacGoover]

I would use a old Honda snow blower frame with caterpillar tracks rather then small wheels, you need to greatly increase the surface contact area of your drive system the ground, and with your bot steering by rotating drive motors in opposite directions... it would be two good systems to marry together. and it would perform the same way as a army tank steers by (skid steering).

[@paul-ld9vh]

Normally that chair would house two group 22 or 34 type deep cycle batteries, which adds about 100 pounds of weight.

[@lucasatilano8008]

I know this is pretty old but it would be cool to use one of these wheelchair chasis to make a human follower with a bit of AI and computer vision, for it to carry stuff for you

[@yukunye9190]

really enlightening

[@roberttan5602]

You could size the whole thing up and make it 4 wheel drive.

[@DolezalPetr]

you should convert it into a battlebot

[@cx3268]

Need wider tires, or better - tracks

[@khertler]

What camera are you using?

[@GhiaSteve89]

I really like this project as well as your stratasys rebuild. just 1 question. why did you make the plow at the angle you did. seems awfully steep of an angle.

[@JustinAlexanderBell]

Add some small paddles to the tires?

[@RobertCowanDIY]

I think treads might be the only way to go. there's just not enough weight to really get traction. Even tracks might not work. I'll probably just go straight to tracks and a snow-blower, because the snow just accumulates and makes it harder and harder to drive.

[@Engineerd3d]

Just use wheels like they use on snow blowers. Add some weight to the system and it will work out fine.

[@frankhage1734]

Treads won't help unless you want to stay on top of the snow. Chains on drive wheels are the way to go for slick conditions over hard surfaces. Perhaps the old farmer's trick of using rope to gain traction would be helpful in the short run. It's pretty cheap, easy, effective, and reversible. Pass rope through the hub and over the tire every few inches to form temporary tire chains. Lace the wheel as even as possible and then tension the rope on the wheel with a triangular loop on the outside of each wheel. Feed the tension loop thorough outer loop pairs at each hub spoke to help the rope lay out a bit more evenly on the tire. Instant deep tread. I'd add bags of sand as weight over the wheels to improve its ability to build walls of packed snow at the bottom of the driveway and on the neighbor's section of sidewalk :-) Thanks for the great videos.

[@ProsetTvTheBESTInstructor]

Nice project Robert...would you share the list of parts for this project? I wonder if you have made any improvement since your initial testing! I am thinking that traction could be improved by simply adding weight to the chassis. Thanks for sharing your passion and expertise;)

[@RobertCowanDIY]

There's a small list in the description. what parts are you curious about specifically? I'm pausing the project right now as I just have too many other things going on and I want to do this one right. I might just build it from scratch and use treads or something.

[@ehsan0606]

NOOO NOOOONOOOOOOOO BRO! Not Too Wide Tires !!! the wider you go, more weight distribution you'll crate! you need, lot's of wight of jsut right(small) surface. Go small, but with good tires! (look for Rally cars on the snow ) (And of course you need more wight :) )

[@sullygully1976]

Wrong. It should have mat tracks

[@ehsan0606]

@@sullygully1976 well, the discussion is about the thickness of the Tires and not the entire different setup! But sure, then you can not go with the same budget! You need to rebuild the whole driveline... And don't forget the costs😉

[@sullygully1976]

@@ehsan0606 then look at the tires on a snowblower, and simulate that.

[@ehsan0606]

Snow blower has the corect amount tire width and hell a lot more wight!!! Again in his partiklar case, you should not increase the size but weight in that... ☺️ If you even put 3 more of the sames tires at each side, you will be needing even more weight to create better traction.

[@sullygully1976]

@@ehsan0606 when i saw what tire s he was using, I new from the beginni g it was going to be a failed experiment. What a waste of time.

[@SanSan0575]

how much this one？

[@partisanguerrilla3167]

Add 500 pounds to whatever you plan. 4-wheel drive.

[@zachvrooman4790]

It's not heavy enough.

[@norm1124]

Is it heavy enough?

[@RobertCowanDIY]

probably not. but I'm not sure weight would help that much. It would need another couple hundred pounds, and even then it would struggle with the really deep snow.

[@solarsynapse]

kewl! Wider wheels?

[@cooperDG123]

stud the tires?

[@RobertCowanDIY]

I did this at about 11 minutes in. It helped, but didn't really solve the problem.

[@danielbraniff8517]

Use tracks

[@candisbrendel7396]

Robert Cowan it could have if you went to the open door and ran it every hour or so while the snow was not high. or was it that you were too lazy to do that? hell the robot was going to do the work, all you had to do is be there and drive, what is so hard about that?

[@RobertCowanDIY]

It often snows overnight.

[@tobydyes]

My RC Crawler is good for 4 inches and less

[@snoopysrc]

Robert would you be interested in doing one of these for me?? i will pay you

[@golee150]

Needs weight and chains on the tires

[@jakemasheck5005]

Love the videos! what if the plow had an angle on it favoring one side? That way the snow would be pushed off rather than collect in front of the plow creating more resistance. Keep the videos coming! Miss you in the Friday New Product Posts btw lol

[@VLAHECO]

wow...very cooollll project. Do you have job openings ? 😆😆😆😆 what beautiful view withe snow. What state are you locate?

[@cengizakgun9068]

Disconnecting the negative power terminal is not the proper way to shut down a motor controller. Any connected I/O to RoboClaw will create a ground loop and cause damage to RoboClaw and attached devices. Shut Down To shut down a motor controller the positive power connections should be removed first after the motors have stopped moving. Powering off in an emergency, a properly sized switch or contactor can be used. A path to ground for regeneration energy to return to the battery should always be provided. This can be accomplish by using a power diode with proper ratings to provide a path across the switch or contactor when in an open circuit state.

[@ericmiddelbos129]

thets a nice toy, i think i wold made it the way you can mowing grass to. lol farming

[@1NRG24Seven]

I was thinking all the way to the end same thing...Just adapt your own makeshift sno blower to this and it should work fine with maybe a better traction plastic belt chain links printed to fit front tire radi both large diameter and tire diameter perpendicular so the links can grab the tires..big links like a buldoser would have but small enough for front wheel and tires or take tire and rim off and modify like they make snow tracts for ATVS with the triangular drive empliments ...so this series should not go away follow through with your original Idea and make it work as it would make a great tool anyone in heavy snow areas would definantly want. In fact I can see RC Remote lawn mowers all sorts of aplication which is the next logical use for almost eliminating physical labor for these tasks. The disabled would benefit also if they could do tasks many take for granted like this. And when one is disabled they don;t have alot of extra money to hire someone else to come shovel snow everytime it decides to drop a load.

[@truckie117]

put an electric snow thrower on front

[@paulogden7417]

Cool but not a robot. No automation. Please consider using gps and ardurover to automate this

[@gibbyrockerhunter]

Your mom is a robot.