CloroBot · Tejas Patel

CloroBot is a robot chassis for teaching robotics at university level. I designed it during a summer internship at SunRobotics Technologies. The brief was a versatile build that lets students learn robotics and put together their own robot projects. It stacks, so the chassis scales with the number of components it carries, and it has provisions for motors, sensors and manipulation.

The plates are laser-cut and hold together on hexagonal standoffs and M3 screws. The components were already in the company’s catalogue: a YDLIDAR, a Raspberry Pi 4B, an Arduino Uno, 360 degree servos and a power bank. The brief also asked for a platform you could program in ROS, and the lidar is there for mapping with Hector SLAM.

The first version was cut in clear acrylic. The black plates came after a round of dovetail test pieces, nine of them in the photo, to find the offset the laser’s kerf needed for a joint to fit.

Nine laser-cut MDF joinery test pieces in two rows on white paper, each with a dovetail-style slot and pencil notes of the offset tried and how it fitted. — Nine laser-cut dovetail test pieces, several with the offset tried written on them.

Black laser-cut chassis plate halves laid on a wooden table, with jigsaw-style edges and cut-outs for standoffs and wiring. — A chassis plate, straight off the laser bed.

Every part of CloroBot laid out flat on white paper: the lidar, a Raspberry Pi, an Arduino Uno, cut plates, an acrylic cross, wheels, two servos, standoffs and screws. — Every part laid out before assembly.

The clear-acrylic version of the chassis on a table: three tiers on standoffs, two yellow wheels and a Raspberry Pi already fitted on the middle tier. — The first version, in clear acrylic, with the Raspberry Pi and servos already fitted.