Robot Building for Beginners, Third Edition

CHAPTER 24 ■ BODY BUILDING

At some point, the motors and sensors for Wavy were serendipitously sitting almost in perfect robot
position in the plastic container. It occurred to me that the container made a more protective, cheaper,
more easily obtained, and less difficult-to-customize robot body than the aluminum body I had already
constructed for Wavy.
And that’s how a Ziploc container came to become Sandwich, the line-following robot.

Transforming the Sandwich Container

The following instructions are based on the out-of-production Ziploc 591 ml (2.5 cup, 20 fluid ounce) square
reusable/disposable plastic container with lid. However, there are so many similar products that you may
choose another container and still find the instructions applicable.

Creating Motor Holes

Let’s begin by making the screw and shaft holes for the motors.

Marking and Determining Space Required By the Circuit Board

1. Lightly tape the breadboard or PCB you’ve chosen to the inside of the container.
   Make sure to place the board flat against the bottom of the container and as far
   forward against the front of the container as it will go (see Figure 24-5).

Figure 24-4. Various reusable/disposable containers