Maker Builds a Military-Style Robot Called Desert Eye

While the military does operate expensive and deadly drones, like the infamous General Atomics MQ-1 Predator, they also have more utilitarian robots. Those perform jobs like reconnaissance, search and rescue, and inspections. Industrial contractors build those robots to a certain standard and to withstand rough conditions, but they often contain the same components that you or I can purchase. That means that you can build a robot that is somewhat comparable to some of the models used by the military. To put his design skills to the test, YouTuber Engineering Juice built this military-style reconnaissance robot called Desert Eye.

The inspiration for Desert Eye came from a handful of different military robots, but the design is entirely original. It's a rover with dual tank tracks and a forward-facing night vision camera. Aside from a small antenna poking up from the front of the robot, the body is smooth and featureless. That helps to sell the military aesthetic when compared to more consumer-style robots, which tend to have a lot of design flair. That look was further enhanced by a digital desert camo covering that helps the robot blend into its intended desert environment.

A Raspberry Pi 4 Model B controls the robot, including the two electric drive motors through a generic L298-based dual H-bridge motor driver. The camera is a Kuman 1080p model with night vision designed for Raspberry Pi single-board computers. The Raspberry Pi receives power from a battery bank, but the drive motors get their power from a set of 18650 lithium-ion battery cells. The robot's enclosure and suspension components were designed in Autodesk Fusion 360 CAD software and then 3D-printed. The tank treads attach to bicycle chains that loop around sprockets. At this time, the robot receives control commands over a WiFi connection, but the plan is to give Desert Eye some autonomous navigation capability soon.