A Robotic Car With Live Video Feed Which Is Controlled Via Smartphone

Hey readers, in this instructables i will show you how you can make a smartphone controlled robotic car with live video feed option and the interesting part here is there is no need of any additional application you can control this via web server and the features are fully customisable.

Let me tell you what is the reason behind making this web server controlled robotic car

Every one of us had the dream of playing with radio controlled car, unfortunately, most of us didn't have the chance to play with it in their childhood being an adult i want to bring that memories back!

But this time it is not that simple radio controlled car here it is loaded with many great features.

This car has multiple advantages, Not only with the smartphone you can control this but with the computer all it needs is a basic web browser you can enter the IP and you are good to go.

This car which i made today can move in all 4 directions and in case if this car is on a mission and it is dark you can turn on the lights from its dedicated onboard camera.

Note that you can make this car 4wd, According to my opinion this power is sufficient to glide in almost every terrain we see across in daily life, if you want to add additional drive system you might need to add extra power sources.

There are many other features and electronics you can add and make this robotic car ready for exploration and surveillance, To me this was more than enough.

If you are willing to build this project i have given all the materials list, Circuit diagram explanations and a working video in the bottom so that any newbie could follow this and have a great build.

These are the componnets that i used to make this car, You can find it in your local electronic hobby shops or just get it from online from the sources below

ESP32 Cam for this Project from here

FTDI 232 Mini USB to TTL Converter

Battery Holder and case

BO motor

Wheels for motor

TOY dc motor

Small Breadboard

MDF or acrylic sheet car frame

Arduino IDE

Jumper cables

Small switch

Phone or laptop with web browser and wifi connectivity

-Optional parts-

Frame of the car made with 3d print

PLA filament

Hold on! This is not the only option to build the body for your car.

The frame for this car can be bought directly from online or if you are a DIY enthusiast like me make it on your own.

The alternative materials to build the frame for this car include, Cardboard, MDF or acrylic sheets, the second and third option needs additional tools to work with.

In my case i have a 3d printer, I just made a design on the tinkercad application and i have dropped the stl file below.

I have made the design keeping the standard size of BO and toy dc motor in mind, After you have the stl slice it using any slicer and print using 3d printer.

I will use PLA filament to print the model, The printing time is not so much and the fit came out great for me.

Since we are not using any rafts or supports there is no need for post processing of the model after printing.

Use small amount of hot glue to glue the dc motor to the frame and the BO motor part is very easy since we can just press and fit the motor in place.

Attach the wheels if you are placing the motor first, allow to dry completely before proceeding with the next steps.

Line i mentioned earlier you have to make circuit 2 time and this is the first one

FTDI 232 Mini USB to TTL Converter has 6 pins in total out of which we are using 4 pins and the connections are as follows

Rx to U0t

Tx to U0r

Vcc to 5v

Gnd to Gnd

I will be using breadboard to make the connections, Connect the converter to computer with cable and open IDE.

Paste the below program into your IDE, select proper board type, Port and click on upload.

Make sure to replace the wifi name and password with yours.

Some board might want you to press the little reset button at the time of upload, in my case it didnt ask, if you face any problem in the upload part press on that button and you should be good to go.

After the program is uploaded to board you can proceed with the main circuit part

The esp32 cam is ready to run with the webserver only thing pending is powering that up, Use this circuit diagram to build connections between the components.

The connections are really simple and let me break it down for you to make it even more simpler.

The L293d motor driver Ena and Enb are connected together and goes to the Pin 12 on the ESP32 cam board

The 12V pin is connected with 9V battery positive terminal and Gnd to the Gnd, Now the 5V from driver is connected to the ESP32-CAM to supply power to the board.

IN1 to 13

IN2 to 15

IN3 to 14

IN4 to 2

The Motors are connected to the motor output pins on the driver, To control the power I will be using a small on and off switch.

In the circuit i have shown as 9v battery but I'm using 2 lithium in batteries providing 7.4v of DC power for this project which has great power backup

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Using this was the most awaited part for me as I was left with too much excitement to try this robotic car.

To use this car all you have to do is power on the car first, wait for some time and this will turn on the wifi on the esp32 board and connect to your mobile hotspot.

You can check on the connected devices and make a note of the IP address, Paste this IP address on the browser

Now you will be able to see a panel with a live video streaming screen at the top

Below you have the option to control the direction of the car and below to that the speed and the LED on the board can controlled.

Best part here is the batteries are rechargeable and you can also add larger battery pack for more power backup

This will be helpful to save the power of the battery when you need it the most, say that you are going on a inclined area you can increase the speed of the car thereby causing no disruption in the movement.

One more instance where it is dark, you might need more brightness to see the objects nearby, all these are helpful.

This completes our project, Consider watching the video below for more info about this project

Hope you followed all the steps and left with no questions! If you still have anything in your mind ask in the comments also here is a detailed video tutorial.

Don't miss to check out the live video stream part inside this video, it makes me rethink of the project that i have made!

I used very less resources but achieved great results here, anyways technology is beautiful and as a human, we have every right to explore it to the fullest to make our lives simpler.

This was all about this project, Thanks and have a great day.