This post is a full description of all the building process, the main idea started with the ratbot, and then I found out that I could follow the same concept with a different approach :)
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I used this little and cheap car toy, two caster wheels and a plastic tube to build this bot.
I used polymorph to create an inner support to the servo, this way the servo will have an horizontal position which is necessary for this robot.
More side supports were added with polymorph and wood. I guess the servo won´t go anywhere now :)
This is the Arduino based circuit, I´ve assembled all the components on a perfboard. From left to right you see the XBee with 3.3v voltage regulator, L293D motor driver, 5v regulator, Arduino chip, and power connector.
This is the back side of the circuit, a friend told me I was better with wire wrapping technique than his college teacher :)
The circuit fits neatly inside the case
A rat without a tail it is not a rat at all :) ..it was made with polymorph, I consider this material to be the best that I have.
I mounted a micro-servo to hold a little sonar (SFR10). Later I will make this bot autonomous
And this is the final look, for now it will be remote controlled by the G-Remote (Arduino Based Remote Control)
I´ve had several issues with this bot, first the direction was unbalanced, it was always turning to one side and was impossible to control, then the motor gears started to have some missaligment and the motor seemed to spin and to go out of grip with the gears, I tried to solve it but the issue still remains, everytime this happens I have to tweak the chassis, press the motor, and it goes ok for a couple of minutes and then it happens again. I feel that the robot could be a lot faster and more powerful, I will do my best to solve this, If I have success I will create another post with a full description of the workaround :-)
Guilherme, ótimo trabalho e ótimo site. muito maneiro o ratazana. Parabéns