Need help/advice for radio control mechanisms

computerexec

All,
I am a first time poster. I am reaching out to the buggies gone wild community for help. I am a part of a research project. Our goal is to use the cart as a demonstrator for our technology. Its easier to use a cart than a full size vehicle for prototyping. We acquired a good used Club Car Presedent that we are wanting to add automation controls to.

Has anyone here modified a cart to have a brake mechanism, steering mechanism and a means to go forward and possibly also reverse? The controls would not prevent normal use of the cart. Ideally the controls would have electrical inputs or relays that we could use a chip and board to control.

I would appreciate any information, links, contacts that one could point me to. I would also love to get specs on the front steering components and also any controller information folks may have.
Our research is intended to improve safety. Our sensor products we hope to make available to the market sometime in 2018/19

thank you for your thoughtful input.

We are located in the Silicon Valley, about 45 minutes south of San Francisco, CA
I have attached a couple photos for folks to see phase 1 prototype.

Attached Images

	IMG_5897.jpg (199.1 KB, 0 views)
	IMG_5901.jpg (183.9 KB, 0 views)
	IMG_5899.jpg (198.3 KB, 0 views)

BGW

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E36Racer

You might want to look on radio controlled airplane forums as well. Giant scale planes use some pretty powerful servos that might be able to handle the load needed to operate a cart. Throttle and brakes are the easier part to figure out, steering seems like the trick part to me, especially to maintain seamless transition between automated and human operation. Hydraulic front brakes (Jakes) might require less effort to operate than the stock mechanical/cable drums. A simple servo to operate the F-N-R switch would be easy. However, I imagine you could also bypass the mechanical F-N-R switch and utilize a relay setup to function the same. Sounds like a cool project, please keep us posted.

Mooncarter

The sensor products you are referring to, are you seeking to construct an aftermarket product for automobiles? In other words, are you attempting to construct an aftermarket product to retro-fit automobiles to function as driverless vehicles like all will be in the near future?

scottyb

Actually - you need to look at robotics forums

computerexec

mooncarter, Our products will most likely be installed in new vehicles, some of our tech is currently being used by a large european manufacturer.
We may also make kits to retrofit vehicles, but not likely for automobiles, more likely for the heavy equipment industry. Our sensors use both sonar and wifi signals to sense distance and size. We make also make chips that interpret these signals and then make decisions as to what to do next. If you look closely at my photos, you may notice the cameras on all 4 sides on the roof. This is called 360 technology. the tech is able to see the entire perimeter of the cart, in combination with sensors and controls, we believe that we can make the world a safer place (on or off roadways)

glassk

https://oshkoshdefense.com/components/terramax/

Oshkosh® TerraMax® unmanned ground vehicle technology integrates high-power military computers, intelligence, drive-by-wire technology and state-of-the-art distributed sensing systems to make unmanned ground vehicles run with no driver and limited supervision. TerraMax technology is available in kit form, so the original utility of the vehicle, crew comfort and payload capacity remain unhindered. And, depending on strategic field objectives, TerraMax technology is capable of a full range of operability – manned, tele-op, leader-follower and full autonomy.

Mooncarter

Hard to tell by the photos. Do you have some better photos?

dlwilson

It seems like hard part of the steering is retaining manual mode. If it was just autonomous I think I would use a big servo like this:
http://www.robotshop.com/en/invensci...code=RB-Ins-02

Mount a drive gear on the servo, weld a sprocket to the steering shaft, and connect with a chain and possibly an idler/tensioner. Or even mount the servo in place of the steering shaft so it turns the pinion directly. The problem comes when turning the steering wheel manually, because you'll strip out the servo.

Perhaps if you convert to electric power steering, so that the steering wheel has no direct connection to the steering box, but simply controls the servo, so you effectively have electric power steering. That seems like a lot of engineering, though.

I started googling, and I found that ididit makes drop-in electric power steering for full-size cars. For under $2K I could remove the power steering pump from my hot rod and bolt in electric rack and pinion steering! But nobody seems to make a setup for smaller vehicles. Maybe a market opportunity?

dlwilson

So I kept googling and reading on this, and I had no idea this stuff is in production cars today. From http://www.cvel.clemson.edu/auto/sys..._steering.html

"...2014 Infinity Q50 was the first commercial vehicle to implement steer-by-wire. Although there is normally no direct mechanical linkage, the Q50 has a mechanical back-up. In the event that a problem is detected with the electronic controls, a clutch engages to restore the driver's mechanical control."

Everything I read has an emphasis on safety and failure mode, with manual backup. But that doesn't seem as important on a golf cart, since you don't have the same speed or mass as a car. For a cart I think I would remove the steering column and replace it with a servo or brushless motor connected to the rack and pinion, screw a video game steering wheel to the dashboard, and use some simple electronics to control the motor. They were doing this in WWII with selsyn motors for fire control systems, so the concept has been around for a while.

I realize this has (almost) nothing to do with golf carts, but I'm always interested in future automobile tech, so please forgive my ramblings.

whit71

A lot of the newer ATV's have electric power steering, and you can get retro kits to put on older ATV's. It shouldn't be to hard to make one of those kits work on a golf cart. It would make it a lot easier to then have manual, and remote control.