Devlog #1: Taking EcoRover Off the Slideshow

Let me be honest for a second. A while ago my school pressured me and my friends into entering a local hackathon. I had exactly 24 hours to brainstorm an idea, throw a team together, build a quick prototype, and set up a booth for the final judging visit.

I came up with a concept called EcoBot, which was a smart, autonomous recycling bin and bread leftovers collector designed for schools. On paper it was cool but in reality? It never actually got built. It lived and died on a slideshow to check a school box.

But I actually liked the concept. So for Stardance this summer I decided to bring it back and build it for real. Except this time there’s no rush, no team, and no cutting corners to pass a class. I’m going completely solo as EcoRover.

A quick BG about me:

I’m Mohamed Anber, an 18yo Egyptian teen who happened to join Stardance in the final year before I’m too old for it. For the last 3 years I’ve been volunteering as an EMR with the Saudi Red Crescent Authority and a Tech Dept. supervisor with the Egyptian Red Crescent. I’ve built some pretty cool projects before (u can check them out on my website btw: https://muhamedanber.space/) though none of them involved trying to keep bread fresh while driving a fancy motorized trash can around. We’ll try to make smth good.

🛠️ The new Blueprint & The Specs

I’ve changed the idea partially. It’s still a fancy trashcan after all, but instead of going around at schools, it’s gonna be for food courts with a built-in fridge. So instead of bread remainings, it’s gonna take food leftovers and save them. That way, whenever someone needs food, they can just take it without having to ask anyone, keeping their dignity completely intact.

I’m building a triple-decker chassis:

• Bottom tier: Handles the heavy power and movement.* Middle tier: Houses an insulated compartment kept cold by a Peltier cooling module to keep those leftovers fresh.* top tier: Handles sorting whatever thrown into to recycle later.

The Tabletop MVP Specs:

• The Brain: Arduino Mega 2560 (absolutely need the massive amount of IO pins).
• The Eyes: 4x HC-SR04 Ultrasonic Sensors mapped North, South, East, and West for 360° obstacle avoidance.
• The Muscle: 4x DC Yellow Smart Car Motors paired with dual L298N H-Bridge drivers. I wanted to go with mecanum wheels at first but it’s gonna be too much of a hustle rn, so we’re just doing differential drive.
• The Fridge: Since an actual 12V mini fridge is gonna be soo heavy, expensive and just not practical, I’m using a TEC1-12706 Peltier Thermoelectric Cooler switched via a 12V Relay module.

📹 Current Status

That’s pretty much everything I’ve got down so far. Plus, I’m working on a long video to document the whole journey, so I’ve already scripted and filmed the first part-ish.

Thx for reading this far, more updates soon!