Getting Rolling

Hello there!

Welcome to Project Rover - a blog where I will be posting updates about the progress I make in the design and construction of a rover robot. As I am sort of working as I go, I will be taking the build in small steps, building systems on top of systems in increasing complexity.

I will be starting with a basic mobility platform and working my way up to a more complex base, capable of handling some terrain. Similarly, the control system will begin as a basic remote control setup using simple commands to drive it manually, but I hope to quickly progress to more advanced methods, to eventually include GPS-based autonomous navigation and adaptive terrain-sensing guidance.

I am a licensed amateur radio operator, and as part of the design, I hope to utilize ham radio for control, feedback, and telemetry on the rover. Planned systems include packetized data for command and control functions, and low-power amateur television and APRS for video backhaul and telemetry.

Although this blog is largely for my own records and to provide a space for my own notes and observations, I hope that I can make it interesting for anyone interested in robotics, radio, electronics, or just neat technological stuff. This project has actually been in the works for quite some time now, and I'm excited to finally be making some progress on it. I hope that you will find it as interesting as I do, and I welcome your questions and feedback.

Thanks for reading!