The trip to Parallax referenced in the previous post was a fruitful one indeed, as we (Folsom Lake College) ended up being the recipient of a sweet, brand new Propellor QuadRover.

The bot is a burly little beast, a sturdy metal frame housing a 4-stroke Honda gasoline engine, a hydraulic propulsion system, disc brakes, and a powerful Propeller microcontroller.

Spent Saturday trying to find ~4 cups of ISO-46 hydraulic fluid, and finally ended up buying 2.5 gallons, which means I ended up with all the robot will need for the foreseeable future.  In any event, the hydraulic system and the motor check out, and after charging the battery, I tried in vain to get the RC controller to communicate with the bot.  I’m pretty sure the receiver is shot, so I’m looking into either securing a new one, or undertaking the delicate soldering that will make it work.

What will we do with the QuadRover?  That remains to be seen.  I’ve lately been thinking of both the rover and the soon-to-arrive quadcopters as sensor platforms.  That is, the plan is to equip them with an array of sensors and data loggers, and figure out amazing instructional activities that make use of the data.  Ideally, I’ll get the whole system working, and then challenge students to come up with the use cases.  Any bright ideas?