Universal Robot Controller (URC)

Graphics

Features

This is what the board can do:

- Can precisely control up to 4 Brushed DC Motors with or without quadrature encoders.

- Can precisely control Serial Bus Servos from various brands.

- Communicate with and control a variety of 2D LiDARs.

- Communicate with and control other robotics hardware through CAN FD.

- Supports voltages up to 36V.

- Incredible support for ROS 2.

The board has two microcontrollers:

1. An ESP32-S3 module, specifically the ESP32-S3-WROOM-1-N16R8, which comes with 16 MB flash and 8 MB PSRAM.

2. An STM32G431KBU6, being used specifically for motor control.

Motivation Behind Making this Controller

There are no robot control boards out there that let you build a fully functional robot with just the board and a power source as the electronics.

Before this board existed, to make a robot that has 4 motors, 2 robot arms, and a LiDAR, one would need to buy the following:

1. A development board of a microcontroller, like an ESP32.

2. A board that can connect to and control 4 DC Motors with quadrature encoders.

3. A board that can control Serial Bus Servos.

4. An SBC like a Raspberry Pi for the LiDAR.

And even after all of this, it would still be a headache to get all of that working together and using ROS 2 with it.

Using the Board

1. Connect a USB-C cable to one of the board's USB-C ports.

2. If using the USB-CDC port, make sure to enable USB-CDC in Arduino IDE before trying to upload the firmware.

3. Flash one of the firmware examples.

4. Connect the board to the peripherals you are using according to the wiring guide in the firmware examples.

Zine

Who am I?

I am a high school student who is really passionate about robotics and has been building projects for over 6 years now.

I am a regular open-source contributor and have also recently become a maintainer of the micro-ROS software.

PCBWay's Role

This controller is being created so that in the future its incredibly simple for everyone to build their very own robots.

I would love PCBWay to help in this mission by sponsoring me with their outstanding PCB fabrication and assembly services.

PCBWay's fast and precise manufacturing is a requirement for this project to become a reality.