EGO Rover (Capstone Project):

Electric Golf Operator Rover (EGO Rover) is our final capstone project for our Electronics Engineering degree. Completed with the help of 2 other group members, we were able to accomplish our goals of a proof-of-concept golf following rover. Our goal was to design an automater golf caddy rover that would cause no additional inconvenience for the user. This meant that we wanted to be able to track the user without an external remote, so we designed an Android app to accomplish that goal. The Android app would stream GPS coordinates or commands to the rover, and the rover would calculate what it needed to do to follow the user.

Features:

• Remote Mode
• Using an Android App, you can remotely drive the rover through bluetooth. The rover will immediately stop if it drives over the incorrect ground, or disconnects from bluetooth
• Follow Mode
• Using an Android App, the rover will compare your phone GPS, and the rover's GPS. It will calculate the difference, and rotate and drive to the user. The rover will immediately stop if it disconnects, drives over the wrong ground type, or if the emergency stop button is pressed
• Assist Mode
• After shifting into assist mode from the Android App, you can move the rover by hand. By pressing the button on the handle, the rover will issue a forward command to assist the user in pushing, however the user is still able to navigate the rover directions themselves

Skills Learned:

• Embedded Systems
• PCB Design (Altium Designer)
• C/C++
• Android Development
• CubeIDE
• PlatformIO
• GPS
• I2C
• LEDs
• DC Motors

Hardware:

• STM32 Nucleo-64 (F303RE) breakout board
• Adafruit Huzzah32 (ESP32 Feather)
• Sparkfun NEO-M9N GPS Module
• Adafruit LSM9DS1
• 2x TCS34725 Colour Sensors
• 2x Pololu TB67H420FTG DC Motor Drivers

Software:

• Android App for Remote mode, and GPS streaming
• CubeIDE used to develop on the STM32
• PlatformIO used to develop on the ESP32

Versions:

Rev 1 - Original Capstone project, no other revisions made

Instructions:

No instructions exist for this project. It was designed as a one-off proof-of-concept.

Can I buy this?

No, this was built as a group project, and was a proof-of-concept. Even if I owned the whole rover, it is not something I'd consider reliable. We decided that this was not worth starting a business too, as our project had used parts in the design. So while we fit it within our budget, designing for a product would increase the price to the other competition in the same space.