Roar-E Power Board

A power distribution board for combat robotics.

Specs

This project was made for the combat robotics team for Columbia University. Each robot is classed based on weight so it is important to minimize the weight and size of its systems. Originally, the team was using premade distribution boards like this one. However, these boards are limited on how many motors and servos it can support. And because each motor required a seperate controller, it did not help with the efficency of the wiring. The idea was brought up to combine all of the necessary power distribution, radio, and motor control into one board. The scope was considered too big for one semester so we decided on only focusing on power distribution.

Circuit

I worked with a very talented team member and together we setteled on using a diode, linear dropoff IC along with capacitors for circuit protection. This had the unintended problem of providing a lower input voltage than expected. Knowing what we know now, I think we would've opted for a Schottky diode and a buck regulator.

In order to ensure we have enough headroom to transfer all of current the motors needed, we went with two copper pours. One 5V and one ground. It was my idea to double these pours on the backside of the PCB and add vias to effectively double our currernt capacity and reduce overall heat.