Meet Sandra, the omni-wheeled mobile orbital sander robot. I am designing, building, and operating Sandra to learn ROS and hone my skills in mechatronic design and embedded programming. I am also building Sandra as a tool for my wife Alex, who loves making big beautiful custom tables but hates spending hours sanding.

Currently, Sandra is still in development. The major mechanical design and build is done. The electrical system has been integrated and tested, save for the IR sensors to help Sandra determine where she is. I have written some basic code to actuate the sander and motors. Soon, I will add some shielding for sawdust, integrate the IR sensors, build out the rest of the code, and begin testing. Farther in the future, I may experiment with more complex sensors and localization and navigation strategies.

For now, I am documenting the design and build process up to this point here, on sandra-the-sander.com. I still have some catch-up to do on documentation, so be patient! I’m working on having this website caught up to the build by mid-March.