Summary of Autonomous Race Car using Arduino
This project transforms an old RC toy car into an autonomous driving robot by replacing its radio control board with an Arduino Uno and a motor driver board. An ultrasonic sensor is added for distance measurement to detect obstacles. The car operates in multiple modes—full speed, cruise, avoid, and reverse—based on the proximity of objects to navigate autonomously. Power is drawn from the original car batteries, and the motors are controlled via the motor driver connected to the Arduino.
Parts used in the Autonomous Driving Robot Car:
- Radio controlled toy car
- Arduino Uno
- Motor driver board (2 channel)
- Ultrasonic sensor distance measuring module
- Breadboard
Build this autonomous driving robot car based on a old RC toy car. I removed the radio control board from the car and replaced it with a brain in the form of an Arduino UNO board (plus a motor driver board) and gave it an ultrasonic distance measuring module to see the world through.
Step 1: Components
- Radio controlled toy car
- Arduino Uno
- Motor driver board (2 channel)
- Ultrasonic sensor distance measuring module
- Bread board
Step 2: Brain transplant
Remove the radio control board from the RC car cutting all wires close to the board. Connect wires to the motor driver board – rear wheel motor in one channel – front wheel steering motor in the other channel.
“Steal” power from the cars batteries.
Step 3: Connect Arduino board and the ultrasonic sensor
Connect the ultrasonic sensor and the motor driver to the Arduino board.
Step 4: The programming
The cars intelligence is pretty simple. It’s based on different modes that controles speed & direction depending on distance to objects ahead of the car:
FULL SPEED MODE – No objects ahead – full speed
CRUISE MODE – Object is X cm away – slow down
AVOID MODE – Object is too close for comfort – slow down and turn in random direction
REVERSE MODE – Object is very close – stop and reverse for 2 seconds
