Dev Log #2 – Designing the Brain

Today I focused on designing and building the brain of my self-balancing robot.

I started by creating a custom 3D model to hold the robot’s electronics, including the controller and motor driver. Since space is limited on a balancing robot, I spent a lot of time adjusting dimensions and component placement to make sure everything would fit correctly. After several revisions, I 3D printed the parts and tested the fit of the electronics.

I also spent a significant amount of time researching PID (Proportional-Integral-Derivative) control. Since PID is what allows a self-balancing robot to stay upright, I wanted to understand how each part of the algorithm affects the robot’s behavior. I studied how PID controllers respond to movement, how tuning works, and how other balancing robots use PID to maintain stability.

Although there is still a lot of work ahead, this was an important step because it established the foundation for both the hardware and software of the project.