Rationale:

The main motivation for this project is to offer extra help to people who are arranging a party. The autonomous “Follow Me” cooler is designed to follow people and carrying a cooler. People can use a simple app on their phone to make the object follow them and close and open the cooler.

Components:

This device is mainly composed of two parts: the base and the cooler.

The base is made of wood and they have four wheels to move around and a small box inside it containing electronics to do the computations. They used an Arduino Uno and a 5v battery to power the sensors, Bluetooth, and control logic. A 3s LiPo battery was used to power the motors. An HC-05 Bluetooth module was mounted at the front of the platform for better range. The rest of the components were mounted inside and connected to the Arduino through the breadboard.

The other interesting component is the cooler with a motorized lid. They used an MG996R high torque servo to power the lid. A 3d printed hinged arm is used to connect the servo horn to the top of the cooler.

In addition, the Bluetooth enables the Arduino to communicate with an app the author wrote. It makes easy access for people to tell the “automatic following” cooler to follow them or to open or close the lid.

Conclusions:

I really like this design because it not only helps people transport heavy coolers but also offer an easy way for people to operate it. It also takes good consideration of the possible accident open of the lid to offer a robust solution. This design offers a good solution for people who are troubled with carrying heavy stuff.

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