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Projects<br />
SHOWCASE<br />
RON OSTAFICHUK<br />
Ron is a tech enthusiast who has been<br />
playing on computers since the Z80. He<br />
is married with three kids and lives in<br />
Airdrie, Alberta, Canada.<br />
ostafichuk.com<br />
The Raspberry Pi acts as<br />
the brains, and the Dalek<br />
is remotely controlled via<br />
a web interface<br />
The Dalek’s body was<br />
built from leftover shed<br />
parts covered in glossy<br />
black paint<br />
The base is designed<br />
to work as a robot<br />
lawnmower, and the<br />
Dalek body is placed on<br />
top for Halloween<br />
Quick<br />
Facts<br />
> Ron used just a<br />
jigsaw, drill, and<br />
utility knife<br />
> The whole<br />
project cost<br />
around £60<br />
to build<br />
> It uses a worn<br />
out battery<br />
but runs for<br />
three hours<br />
> Ron plans to<br />
add ultrasonic<br />
and bump<br />
sensors to<br />
the Dalek<br />
> The Dalek 2.0<br />
will be based<br />
on a mobility<br />
scooter<br />
RAS<strong>PI</strong>MOWER<br />
DALEK<br />
Ron Ostafichuk set out to build a robot lawnmower and ended<br />
up with a fully automated Dalek (you know how it is)<br />
D<br />
aleks are the most feared<br />
race in the universe, so<br />
what could be more fun<br />
than building your own Raspberry<br />
Pi-powered Dalek?<br />
That’s what developer Ron<br />
Ostafichuk thought. “I’ve been<br />
tinkering with the Raspberry Pi<br />
ever since it came out,” he tells us,<br />
“and I’ve seen many small robot<br />
projects, but decided that a big<br />
robot would be much more fun.”<br />
The Dalek didn’t start out as<br />
a Dalek: Ron wanted to build a<br />
robotic lawnmower. “I have a<br />
huge lawn and I wanted to show<br />
my kids that you could build a<br />
large robot, using spare parts<br />
and scraps.”<br />
The wooden base contains two<br />
12V motors recycled from a life<br />
spent adjusting the seats on cars.<br />
These motors are connected to<br />
the big off-road wheels using<br />
a V-belt system.<br />
“Once I had the motorised base<br />
completed, my kids hopped onto it<br />
and proceeded to ride it around the<br />
neighbourhood. They loved it, and<br />
remarked how great it would be to<br />
ride it around for Halloween. Since<br />
I am a pretty big Doctor Who fan, the<br />
idea that came to me was to turn it<br />
into a Dalek!”<br />
For power, Ron is using an old<br />
12V deep-cycle camper battery.<br />
“[It] was no longer strong enough<br />
to use in my camper,” says Ron,<br />
“[but] it lasted for around three<br />
hours of continuous operation<br />
this Halloween.”<br />
“I am running the standard<br />
Raspbian distro on the Pi,” says Ron,<br />
and the Raspimower Dalek control<br />
code is written in C++ (available on<br />
Bitbucket – magpi.cc/1HWNV8j).<br />
The Dalek is a body that sits on<br />
top of the Raspimower base. The<br />
frame was built from ¾-inch<br />
(19mm) chipboard, and the outside<br />
from ¼-inch (6mm) sheeting.<br />
38 January 2016<br />
raspberrypi.org/magpi
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