Welcome to the first episode of an exciting series of articles that will guide you step-by-step through building a small robotic car! I have long been fascinated by robotics—especially autonomous driving robots. That’s why I’d like to show you how to build your own robot car using simple, low-cost components.
The goal of this series is to develop an affordable yet versatile robotic car. With my ESP32 Dev Kit C V4 from AZ-Delivery, a powerful microcontroller, you can implement many exciting features for your robotic car. Sounds cool, right? Then let’s get started right away!
For controlling the robotic car, we are using a PlayStation 5 controller! Unlike classic web interfaces, the PS5 controller provides intuitive and precise control that is also easy for children to use, requiring no additional smartphone or WiFi. The ESP32 is equipped with Bluetooth, making it ideal for our robotic car project controlled by a PS5 controller. This way, we’ll turn your robotic car into a truly smart vehicle, and the ESP32 allows us to, for example, control LED lights or perform functions of the robot car via the PS5 controller’s buttons.
Thanks to the 32 GPIO pins of the ESP32, you can connect and control motors, sensors, and other components. Interfaces like UART, I2C, SPI, DAC, and ADC give you endless possibilities. This means you can not only make your car drive, but also equip it with additional features, such as a lifting arm controlled by a servo motor.
Robot Car Family – ESP32
Who is this series for?
This series is intended for anyone who’s interested in an exciting DIY project. Whether you’re a student, teacher, or simply a technology enthusiast—you’ve come to the right place! You don’t need expensive materials or tools, just curiosity and creativity.
What can you expect in this series?
Over the course of the series, I will show you:
How to set up the development environment for the ESP32.
How to program motors and sensors.
How to build a cool chassis (from cardboard, wood, ice cream packaging, or even with a 3D printer).
How to control your robot with the PS5 controller.
We’ll focus on keeping the project as low-cost as possible. You’ll also get plenty of tips on how to customize and expand your robot.
A preview
Once you understand how to build and program such a robotic car, you can apply the basic concepts to many other projects. How about a robot that automatically scares away pigeons like a scarecrow? There are no limits to your imagination!
In the next post, I’ll show you all the hardware components you need to build your robot car.
YouTube Video
The video shows all three of my already build ESP32 powered robots.
My name is Ingmar and I build Raspberry Pi robots in my sparetime. I wrote a book about Raspberry Pi robots 2016 which is available in German. I am interested in all kinds of electronic projects like differential GPS, machine learning or robotics.
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