Hacking and tracking an RC car

A Maker by the name of Shazin recently posted an RC car hack that tracks (and follows) the face of a user. The first step of the project? Assuming direct control of the RC vehicle.

“The uniqueness in this approach is that many people have [executed] RC car hacks using Arduino to control the RC, [rather than] the car itself,” Shazin explained in a recent blog post. “[This] hack directly controls the car instead of sending commands using the RC.”

As HackADay’s Kevin Darrah points out, the car used in the project isn’t exactly high-end, so Shazin had to forego about PWM control.

“Instead, a single IC (RX-2) was found to handle both the RF Receiver and H-Bridges,” writes Darrah.

“After a bit of probing, the four control lines (forward/back and left/right) were identified and connected to an [Atmel-based] Arduino.”

Shazin then paired the Arduino with a USB host shield, linking it with his Android phone via ADB (Android Debug Bridge), while also tweaking the OpenCV Android Face Detection app for the project.

“If the first detected face (target) is in the right half of the image, then turn right or else turn left and go forward,” notes Shazin.

Interested in learning more about the user tracking car? You can check out Shazin’s project page here and HackADay’s coverage here.