The Ultimate Guide to using Motors in Robotics (including ROS, Raspberry Pi)

Jump straight to 24:25 for the finished product!
Learn everything you need about adding a motor to your robot, including how to connect it to a Raspberry Pi running ROS!
Repo for Arduino firmware github.com/joshnewans/ros_ard...
Repo for serial_motor_demo ROS package github.com/joshnewans/serial_...
Here are a few videos explaining/demonstrating aspects of PID control (thanks to Eric Mack for the suggestions!). Hopefully some day I'll get around to making my own...
Simple Visualisation - • PID control
Technical Explanation - • PID Controller Explained
Physical demo - • PID demo
00:00 - Intro
00:27 - A layered solution
01:25 - Basic power, motor drivers
02:57 - Motor Controllers (open and closed loop)
05:53 - Pi as motor controller (?), comms link
07:21 - Robot controller and software driver
09:30 - Demo circuit overview
10:38 - Wiring the motor driver
12:53 - Making the motor controller, open-loop test
15:56 - Encoders and closed-loop control
22:00 - Setting up ROS driver
24:25 - Using the control UI, outro

[@CyberHak]

I was so overwhelmed with the complexity of robot making, AI, deep learning, Lidar. Coral TPU, Hexapod design, drones. neural networks, Raspberry Pi, Linux. I could go on. I love it all but have so much to learn. I watch your videos and feel more confident about all this shenanigans. Can't wait to watch more of your videos. Top man.

[@evanlane1690]

This is so much better than most ROS tutorials out there from a learning perspective! Excellent job! Most other tutorials out there barrel ahead with terminal commands with no context or practical hardware examples. Thank you!

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Thanks!

[@DanielJoseMP]

Could you make a video for people starting this hobby? Like showing what things to buy, mistakes to avoid etc…

[@henriquecastro4707]

That would be great 😊

[@MemoxCid]

In the web page he have this

[@timjack5312]

It is hard to find such a good tutorials series of ROS2. Thank for your sharing!

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Thanks!

[@tonynajjar4893]

Great explanation! I love how you threw in cutting-edge ROS2 in there!

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Thanks :D

[@jimbrownza]

.... while at the same time using a motor driver that is about 40y or so old, and which has been superseded by loads of more energy efficient mosfet based products that don't need a heatsink the size of a car radiator.

[@azraelsoluna110]

Yes to Videos on Motors! Great video!

[@autumnreed2079]

Thank you so much these videos are amazing! I just started my journey of learning about robotics and control systems and this is making it much easier to get into this coming from a person with a theoretical physics background barely any electronics.. :)

[@jessenagy9302]

I have subscribed! You are doing a great job helping people learn the skills we always wanted but didnt have access to.

[@divy04]

thanks a lot , we have been stuck on this for weeks, and now it works

[@TheRaidingGamer]

This is a great guide to robotics for beginners. Covers more *practical* material than a 4000 electro-mechanical devices class for mechanical engineers lol. Although terminology may be the limiting factor for some but aside from the lingo this is perfect. I'm SHOCKED that this doesn't have at least 100,000 views. Great work!

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Thanks so much!!

[@ramsha8833]

I love it. Its heaven for robotics beginners

[@ChillGuy511]

A video on motor types and how yo choose them would be so awesome! I clicked on this expecting just that! Still gonna watch it though... Seems cool enough!

[@Kit-Alpha]

I second that! I have spent weeks trying to figure out the type of motor I should use. I've looked at the formulas for calculating torque etc. but for some reason, it just won't "click".

[@Yu-kt7ph]

Thank you for your guide!!!! That must be helpful for my future project.

[@dgb5820]

Absolutely awesome video

[@J_A-_]

Id really like a video on what motors are best for what purpose, thanks for the video!

[@mohankrishnan2022]

Excellent presentation!

[@naum900]

Very well presented! Thank you.

[@jonathanr4242]

Excellent. Got everything working in that video. Had to run "sudo apt remove brltty" to get the serial port to recognise the arduino.

[@adwaitingle2315]

What's that exactly and why to use?

[@jonathanr4242]

@@adwaitingle2315 it's the Braille terminal. Josh goes over it in his ready to humble video which is on the same play list as this.

[@arts5821]

Good job! Ceep work on these projects, thanks for content!

[@PP-fh2mk]

I REALLY LOVE THIS PROJECTS

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Thanks!

[@maheshpatel2005]

Nicely explained

[@ironrider4526]

Very good explained video!

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Thanks!

[@freddiehong]

This video is great! Thank you 😊

[@werkstattkreuzberg4234]

Good overview for beginners!

[@shyamkganatra]

yes a video on different types of motor would be great

[@sebastianrada4107]

Great video. Please make a video about the types of motors and how to choose them.

[@chriskeefe3219]

Great video!

[@infestus5657]

Underated Video

[@karanbirchahal3268]

Amazing !!!

[@obensustam3574]

I really like they way how you went step by step through the topics. Maybe you can explain the ROS side more deeply for future projects. Thank you.

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Thanks! Yeah as much as I tried to cram as much as I could into it, there really is so much more to say on the topic - I have a never-ending list of ideas to get through!

[@artemt1987ify]

Amazing and so helpful video. Would be great to have a list of all things used in this video. Wondering what is a ground regulator (its on the top left side)

[@akeelwall8449]

awesome tutorial many thanks

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Thanks!

[@messerschmidtfpv4419]

i love it. works fine for me.. big thanks..

[@Nihalmoneymaker]

Great Video!! Please make a video on motors.

[@sinankuniyilathoot5188]

Just great 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@GiovanniChrisanto]

Great video! I have been following through the series. I just wondering, when you did the open loop control to get the thick count, did you run it on full speed (255)? I would love to watch the PID control video if you make one later. Thanks!

[@umeshy]

Thanks for posting, please make video on explanation on different kind of motors, thanks

[@sinankuniyilathoot5188]

Only ROS CHANNEL that makes sense

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Thanks so much!

[@JIM94K]

Thanks for the great series Josh! Do you have any tips or good resources for adding a servo motor to the project, perhaps using the microcontroller, and being able to control it from the gamepad? For example putting the camera on a tilting mechanism so that you can pan up and down? If anyone else has done this or a similar case, I'd love to hear from you!

[@unichurchunsw1286]

great work!

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Thanks!

[@rogernunn1]

I would like to control the suspension on a model car ( made in meccano) based on feedback from an electronic gyroscope. It is supposed to keep the body of the car level whatever the terrain. My plan is to use a raspberry pi with an electric motor that is linked to the suspension, so your demonstration is well on the way to what I want to achieve.

[@tlmoller]

Open loop is just fine in case of a stepper motor. This give very good control and is used in all kind of systems including 3D printers.

[@isthattrue1083]

Yes, if you haven't already made a video on the motors, please do. Would you also include examples of situations you could use each motor type?

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Yep, it's definitely on my list of videos to make after I've finished this current series :)

[@dr.jacintorodriguez7559]

I love the way you systematically explain complex topics. What software do you use to create your beautiful diagrams/flow charts for your videos?

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Thanks! 90% of my diagrams are done using Inkscape as white lines/text on a transparent background. I edit in DaVinci Resolve, so I use its compositor (Fusion) to take the static images from Inkscape, overlay them on the background, fade in/out, do extra lines, etc. In addition to that, there are bits and pieces done in GIMP, Blender, and Manim. And, for what it's worth, all done on Linux! I hope to do some more theory/concept stuff in the future and make better use of manim (originally created by Grant Sanderson for his channel 3Blue1Brown) :)

[@jeffreyjene]

This whole series has been terrific, with clear and concise explanations and instructions. I have had one issue I haven't been able to figure out. I have wired up these motors six ways from Sunday. I've studied the diagrams and the setup on the video and duplicated it perfectly. Even so, when teleop-ing I find the motors run fine forwards and backwards, but when using j and l to turn left or right, the controls are reversed! Left goes right and right turns left. Seems weird, as turning just consists of one wheel going forwards and the other backwards. I've tested this with a joypad as well with the same results. No combination of wiring I've tried seems to work. If I wire up by switching the pins then left and right are fine, but forward and backward are then reversed. Ive even tried reversing the motor leads. If anyone else has found this to be a problem and have found a solution please drop me a note.

[@jeffreyjene]

I figured it out, I had my encoders on the wrong pins. Duh.

[@miniminerx]

FINALLY A GOOD TUTORIAL ON HOW TO STRUCTURE A GOD DAMN ROBOT

[@FuzzyOne37]

Great video. Just getting started with ROS. You mentioned that the L298 motor controller isn't the best, but it will do. I agree. What other motor controllers would you recommend or have experience with? Thanks for your time!

[@christophermacier]

Awesome tutorials. I am teaching myself Python now so I can start coding my own robots. These tutorials are great for the hardware side and how to get things setup with ROS. Thank you much! Oh and do you have links for the DC motors you are using with the built-in encoders?

[@atticusrussell1225]

I looked up Yahboom 4wd chassis and got a chassis with a set of motors with encoders. Hopefully this helps

[@h7opolo]

9:03 whoa, youtube made the "subscribe" button animate when you ask viewers to click it during your video. so cool.

[@vatsal9005]

wow, didnt notice that

[@blaircox1589]

I love your video on murders!!! 😁

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Hahaha it took me a minute to understand!

[@priyamd4759]

Liked and subscribed.

[@jonron3805]

I would like to see a video on different motor types

[@arvinmistry9744]

Excellent good vedio please make more vedio

[@midnighttutor]

Great informative presentation! Could you please comment: If you would like to put a robot with motor control into actual use, say to raise and lower a convertible top on a car as an example, you are not going to have it hooked up to your laptop. What is the missing link or next step to get the robot self contained in a production environment, so to speak? Thank you.

[@tkdefender8870]

What motors do you use that have the encoders built on? Can you include links or model numbers?

[@GodsLittlegizmoguy96]

First, thanks so much for these tutorials! They are great! When I run miniterm, I have to use baudrate of 9600, not 57600 in order to not get English out. And it outputs a whole bunch of "sensor=xxx ouput=xxx" lines, but it will not take in any motor commands to get the motor running. Apparently many changes have since been made to the arduino code?

[@kardousyoussef4338]

great video can you upload the modified version of RosArduinoBridge for arduino nano and l298n ?

[@pasquentmax]

Hello, great video I learned a lot, thank you! A question, can I replace the arduino by the Raspberry Pico? What should I do about it?

[@agrimekatronik321]

Hello, first of all thanks a lot for these tutorials. I am using as5600 magnetic encoder for close-loop control of motors. So I can't use your code because encoder is communicating via I2C from analog pins of arduino uno. My question is: Which topics do I need to subscribe(cmd_vel) in order to make it work. For example, I know that I need to subscribe to cmd_vel to get wheel velocities from ros and move the robot, but where do I need to publish wheel velocities or positions to do navigation?

[@woncheollee4297]

Thanks your Guide to using Motor tutorial. Can you please detailed pictures or diagram wire connection of 12 DC encoder motor to Arduino Nano?

[@whysoairyair]

Amazing video, really well explained. Im having an issue with only the pins connected to D2 and D3 are being counted on the encoders, no other pins would count the encoder readings. it looks like there's an issue with the interrupt pins, which is the arduino nano has only two - INT0 and INT1 on D2 and D3 but its working for you in the video so i cant be so sure i've tried swapping the encoders too, both are working perfectly but its just D2 and D3 that count. and this code wont work on an Arduino Mega :/ PS: im using OE-37 Hall Effect Encoders - mounted seperately any suggestions?

[@heitorl8095]

The best

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Thanks!

[@just_bright]

The "clap" magic of adding 2nd motor is all I needed to see. I just needed to know if all motors share the same step dir Ena pins on the controller. If so, how the he'll does a signal know which motor to send to?

[@benservey9295]

Hey all, Scott here!

[@edwingeorge5264]

currently i have SPG 30 E gear motor is it possible to use this method for getting values from motor to ros? and iam using Noetic

[@B94U2]

Where did you get the blue work mat?

[@ahmedhelalmahmoudhassanmah3028]

Please, can you send the link of the video of uploading the code on to the Arduino ? I didn’t find it in the description as you said

[@OZtwo]

My latest project I'm starting on is a simple eye that will follow you around the house. I have most of it yet still need to work out how to track sound using a Raspberry Pi. Any good tips?

[@user-hn1ke7gl5u]

how can i use this to wire 4 motors instead of two with Arduino also? if there is a link that can help

[@edupedika]

Instead of gear motor is it possible to use Bldc motor ????

[@ErkanUnal.]

Have you tried with a BLDC motor equipped with a Hall sensor?

[@emreucar1888]

Very good video. Can you make a video for rosserial for ros2 ?

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Thanks. I think last I checked there was no version of rosserial for ROS 2? It's a long time since I looked into it though. I'll keep it in mind for the future :)

[@ranikinnal3413]

I've been following your series and its really useful and informative!! Can u please share a link i can access the video on motors selection(as mentioned in time stamp - 1:16) if its aired already? If not i hope you can make one, would be really helpful! @ArticulatedRobotics

[@lion87563]

To make a parallel between real robot and the Gazebo simulation, we can say that teleop_twist_keyboard node is Robot Controller and control plugin node (for example gazebo_ros_diff_drive) is Motor Controller. Is this correct?

[@arjunm2412]

If I need to add IR proximity sensors in the robot in which part I need to change the code

[@MemoxCid]

Hello where can I find the code for the L298N and Arduino?

[@TANRIninResulu]

Can we also control torque?

[@muhamadkhosyiizzatullah274]

can the arduino program on your repo need improve if i use differen motor driver shield like pololu VNH5019 or IBT-2 (BTS7960)? because i need more power for the motor

[@mehmetalisahin3263]

did you find them i need to code for bts7960

[@frankfurtdynamics2783]

Hi I used exactly the same code but I don't recieve any encoder Data. I checked the encoder manually with an Oscilloscope and it works. So I believe it has to be a problem with the code. Any idea?

[@gooseisloose4015]

hi! what if i want to make a robot that is completely disconnected from my arduino UNO and can self run. Basically I upload some preset direction code and take it off the arduino UNO then run it. Is this possible with these motors ?

[@TesterTester-qq2db]

What is the reason you do the motor-control on the extra arduino, and not on the RasPi, too (with ROS)?

[@Mateus-vj6fy]

Hello Josh, I'm trying to use the Arduino Mega with this example, but I'm having trouble with the encoder's ports, I think that ports C doesn't work as it should using Arduino mega, how can I switch from port C to port F? And is it harder to change this code to work in the Arduino mega?

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Ooh it's been a while since I've written Arduino code and I've never used the mega before. I am quite certain it will be a very simple fix - just a matter of knowing the right thing. I would have thought it's a matter of just changing the defines in encoder.h to be the new pins?

[@ByteHendTechX]

@Mateus did u solve it??

[@whysoairyair]

did you solve this?

[@Swqtt]

I'm running both the GUI and the driver on my laptop. And it doesn't seem it is sending anything, it is constantly giving a time-out error.

[@codewithemmaprime]

Hey Josh!! Thanks so much for this tutorial. Can I control the motors in open loop mode?? Like I mean for the real robot because my encoders broke 😢 and I cannot buy another

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Yeah for sure! If you are using my ros2_control hardware interface you want to replace the "write" command with one that sends an "o" message instead of an "m" message, and write a line that scales the speed request to the appropriate open loop signal.

[@stopgox]

I want to drive 4 brushless gear motors (mecanum wheels) that have built-in encoders, there are 5 wires coming out. I need a cheap driver one for each wheel any suggestions. Thanks for the great vid.

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Thanks! My experience with brushless motors is actually pretty limited unfortunately (something I am keen to explore more in the future). Do you have a link to the particular motors I could look at? Some have a driver on-board. The main brushless driver I am aware of is ODrive (odriverobotics.com/) but it is not cheap. Some similar ones are reviewed here kzbin.info/www/bejne/jZOUmKaAabBnpq8 Alternatively you may have luck using an esc like those used for drones and then wrap that in a closed-loop control of some kind using the encoders. Sorry I couldn't be more help, like I said I definitely want to dive deeper on this in the future!

[@jubabi_studies4462]

Hello, thank you for this video, please how can i use the same thing but with ESC and brusless motor ?

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Yeah a lot of people have asked for that! I will definitely do that eventually, but probably not too soon as I have a lot of other topics coming up :)

[@muhammadqaisarali]

Can you please make a video on micrROS as well?. What i understood is that microROS should have been used foe this hardware level stuff. Further why Ros control if microROS is already out there?.

[@underlecht]

How does serial_motor_demo/driver knows the exact commands to send to arduino? does it emit the same commands you were sending manually - "o ", "e",... ?

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

That's exactly right. The driver is just sending the same commands I was sending manually. The only difference is it has a bit of code that converts the value in rad/s (that the gui is publishing) to counts/loop (that the Arduino expects). Check out the code here (good bit highlighted) github.com/joshnewans/serial_motor_demo/blob/da60760df16b868f2ef487e485e480d28b7d46db/serial_motor_demo/serial_motor_demo/driver.py#L82-L106

[@Automatic_Robot]

Hello, I have a problem that the speed of both wheels is not the same speed, the right wheel is faster than the left wheel. What do I need to do now, please help me. Thanks a lot

[@KSLEEProjects]

I have the same problem

[@ThanhPhamRb]

⁠have you fixed that problem yet?

[@Automatic_Robot]

@@KSLEEProjects Have you tried checking whether the signal read from the encoder of the 2 wheels is equal? If the signals of the two encoder are not equal, you should check the encoder's signal wire again

[@Akash-el4ls]

I did this but without encoder I made Pwm to adjust the motor speed and set the pwm same for both the motors

[@owletkami8018]

I would actually love to see the motor video on how to choose them and how to control the various types of motors (induction, DC, Universal, AC, 2-phase, 3-phase) what does it all mean for my project making journey?

[@messerschmidtfpv4419]

That would be too much. accompany mr newans on his journey. it's going to be interesting enough

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Haha thank you, I'm glad to have you both along for the journey! I would like to make some videos going deeper into those different motor types, but at this rate that will probably be a very long ways off (like 12 month+) I hope to do one on Brushless DC motors in the shorter term (maybe in 6 months or so) as they are very relevant to the hobby and small commercial robotics that I'm focusing on at the moment.

[@messerschmidtfpv4419]

@@ArticulatedRobotics I would like to rewrite the Rosbridge for Arduino so that 4 of the 12V DC motors can be used and read. check out my channel for the reason :) I look forward to continuing my journey with you.

[@LucasMOV394]

how can i use the Arduino Motor Controller with a motor and a servo

[@samj1012]

servos have one chronic issue is that when powering the system, they jump to home position, which causes damage to the robot sometimes. Hardware solutions not successful, but maybe something in C code can absorb this. Bet I saw many commercial robots use normal motors with rotary encoder or stepper instead of servo.

[@bparmaksiz6686]

Is there any idea, why I got "miniterm command not found" error even i install python3-serial as "sudo apt install python3-serial" on my ubuntu 22.04 ? Thanks in advance for your help.

[@bparmaksiz6686]

Okay I got the answer. it was changed to pyserial-miniterm. But still you may have an error which is "Errno 13 Permission denied: '/dev/ttyUSB0" . You have to command this "sudo usermod -a -G dialout # To allow access to the /dev/ttyUSB# " and reboot. everythings will work.

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Hi, sorry I didn't get to this sooner, I'm glad you got it sorted. I do have the usermod thing in the video but that is very helpful to know that the miniterm package has changed, I will keep that in mind if people ask in the future.

[@AnweshAdhikari]

❤

[@tobster8367]

Please how do we upload the Ros_Arduino_Bridge code? so far I've only been able to find how it's done with rosrun and rosbash which aren't compatible with ros2 foxy. Thanks.

[@althahirceja7153]

im still trying to find a way to do this did u ever find a solution?

[@tobster8367]

@@althahirceja7153 Unfortunately I didn't, my setup was a bit different so it didn't work out this way

[@-CHARUAHAMED]

How can i choose the rpm of the motor

[@curtisnewton895]

L298 has a to high internal resistance

[@ArticulatedRobotics]

Definitely agree. It is a terrible motor driver for practical applications, but it is extremely cheap and easy for beginners to use.

[@MC-DevaPrasanthM]

I'm getting in error #include WProgram.h while compiling in arudino.... Could you help me to fix this sir

[@user-pv8yv1wu2l]

Hello can anyone tell me why we arent using Raspi directly to supply PWM to Motor driver. Why is Arduino Nano used?

[@ethanholter]

In this example there’s only one motor but in most robotics applications there are significantly more components that need to be controlled. The raspberry pi simply doesn’t have enough pwm capable pins for more than 1 or 2 motors

[@DesertVox]

I like this moda. This murder is good for robotics projects.