Reverse engineering + control of mini self-balacing scooter

[vmatos offline]

Here at Robosavvy we really enjoy making self-balancing robots.
Robots like our human greeting robot Rickie and Ali's gaming sidekick, FRHANK were two awesome projects where we had much fun developing.

Recently we came across a mini segway/scooter that seemed as a great starting point for a more affordable self-balacing robotic platform. Video

We just received one on our Lab!

The mini scooter

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In the next weeks we'll take a closer look at it and reverse engineer all the electronics. Then we'll develop our own main board and control algorithms. How much we use from the original device and how much we are throwing to the trash will depend on its design.

We'll start by understanding the role of the three boards, each one with its own ARM MCU, how they communicate and how the motors are controlled and driven.

Here are some photos of the disassembly.

Battery LEDs and foot platform sensors

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Battery on the right and motor board on the left

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Right IMU board with optical sensors for foot detection

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Motor (?) board with ARM microcontroller

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Motor board and left IMU board

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One of two boards with a ARM microcontroller + MPU6050 IMU

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We'll keep you guys posted and share all the details.