This “Tortoise Bot” Features a Gigantic Arduino UNO

What was the first real project you completed using an Arduino? I give it a 50/50 chance that your answer is “a turtle bot.” They’re a staple of education in electronics and robotics. So when UncleStem needed something to justify the existence of the massive 7:1 scale Arduino UNO Rev3 he built, he chose to construct a similarly big “tortoise bot.”

Maybe “Galápagos giant tortoise bot” would be more appropriate, because this thing is huge. In fact, it is seven times the size of the conventional turtle bot that UncleStem modeled it after. And as with the oversized Arduino that UncleStem made a few months ago, this tortoise bot is completely functional. In fact, it functions under the control of the aforementioned XXL Arduino.

UncleStem’s embiggening process is pretty straightforward. Using the motors as an example, those are the type you’d normally find in a child’s ride-on vehicle. They’re much larger than the original turtle bot’s motors, but not quite seven times as large. So, UncleStem modeled shells in CAD and then 3D-printed them. The shells fit over the motors, making them look exactly like the originals — just scaled up.

He did something similar for all of the components, using laser-cut plywood when necessary for some of the pieces. The only part he couldn’t make himself was the frame. On the original turtle bot, that was just a small piece of laser-cut acrylic. But it takes a pretty large machine to cut acrylic seven times that big, so UncleStem had to hire that part out.

The entire tortoise bot really only contains two parts that could be purchased off-the-shelf and used as-is. Those are the wheels/tires, which are of the style you’d use for garden equipment, like wheelbarrows. Though UncleStem even customized those with 3D-printed hubcaps, because he is nothing if not a stickler for the details.

The final result is genuinely impressive, on both a technical and creative level. If there weren’t other objects in frame for reference, you could see a video of this tortoise bot and think it was just a regular old turtle bot.