Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering

Vol. 1, No. 2, December 2016, Pages 56-61

A Remote Controlled Car Using Wireless Technology

Joni Welman Simatupang and Michael Yosua

Study Program of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, President University
Jl. Ki Hajar Dewantara, Cikarang Baru, Bekasi-17550, Indonesia
Corresponding author: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Automation or automatic control is the use of various control system for operating any equipment or device such as a
remote controlled (toy) car, switching on telephone networks, and other useful applications with minimal or reduced
human interventions. This paper proposes a design and implementation of a remote controlled car by wi-fi technology via
computer or mobile devices. In completing this research work, wireless software and hardware technologies have been
used, such as wireless module of ESP8266 for transceiver (transmitter and receiver), Arduino Uno as microcontroller, an
H-bridge L293D IC for motor controller, and two electric DC motors are used to move the automobile. Two objectives of
this project are to expand the limitation range of a normal radio frequency car using wi-fi technology and also to create a
ubiquitous technology for automobile that operates in daily life with a control system. The test result shows that the
controlled car can move in any direction. However, the performance depends on the device signal strength where the
maximum testing range is only about 20 meters’ distance from the user’s location.

Keywords: automation, wi-fi technology, remote controlled car, Arduino, signal strength.

ABSTRAK

Otomatisasi atau kontrol otomatis adalah penggunaan berbagai sistem kontrol untuk mengoperasikan peralatan atau divais
seperti mobil mainan yang dikontrol dengan remote, saklar jaringan-jaringan telepon, dan aplikasi bermanfaat lainnya yang
sedikit atau bahkan tanpa intervensi manusia sama sekali. Artikel ini memberikan deskripsi tentang sebuah disain dan
implementasi dari mobil mainan yang dikontrol dengan remote melalui medium teknologi nirkabel dengan menggunakan
komputer atau ‘divais bergerak’ seperti telepon genggam. Dalam menyelesaikan penelitian ini, baik teknologi nirkabel perangkat
lunak mapun perangkat keras telah digunakan, seperti halnya modul ESP8266 yang berfungsi sebagai pemancar dan penerima,
Arduino Uno sebagai mikrokontroller, dan sebuah IC dengan tipe H-bridge L293D yang berfungsi untuk kontroller motor, dan
dua motor DC elektrik yang digunakan untuk menggerakkan mobil remote kontrol tersebut. Dua tujuan utama dari penelitian ini
adalah untuk memperbesar jangkauan batasan normal mobil frekuensi radio dengan menggunakan teknologi nirkabel dan juga
untuk menciptakan teknologi kontrol yang memasyarakat dan dapat beroperasi dengan baik dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. Hasil
dari tes percobaan menunjukkan bahwa mobil mainan yang dikontrol dapat bergerak ke segala arah. Namun, kinerjanya
tergantung kepada kekuatan sinyal divais di mana jangkauan tes maksimum hanyalah 20 m jauhnya dari lokasi pengguna.

Kata kunci: otomatisasi, teknologi nirkabel, mobil kontrol remote, Arduino, kekuatan sinyal.

transmitter, and a receiver, and a power supply. The

I. INTRODUCTION transmitter has joysticks for controlling, steering and
In 1898 in an exhibition at Madison Square wheeling. The receiver uses amplitude modulation for the
Garden Nikola Tesla demonstrated a small boat which radio signal and pulse width modulation to control the
could apparently obey commands from the audience but motors. And the power supply supplies the power needed
was in fact controlled by Tesla interpreting the verbal for the car to operate. Figure 1 shows the illustration of the
requests and sending appropriate frequencies to tuned basic wireless controlled car diagram.
circuits in the boat [TKS06]. Then in 1966 the first Currently, remote controlled cars use radio-frequency
commercial radio controlled cars, produced by the Italian (RF) technology. In 2014, a group of students from Rutgers
company El-Gi (Electtronica Giocattoli) from Reggio University that called the Spybot [EB14]. This project uses
Emilia. The first model was Ferrari 250LM and was Bluetooth module, Arduino Motor Shield, 2 dc motors and
released in UK [RCC15]. The principles of radio controlled 1 servo motor. It also uses two android phones, one for
car was very simple, the components needed are a receiving the signal from Bluetooth module, and the other

Received: 10 April 2017 Revised: 30 May 2017 Accepted: 13 June 2017

Journal of Electrical and Electronics Engineering

one is for streaming back live video. The total cost to

create the project is 160.01$ excluding the android phones.
Figure 2 shows us about the Spybot Project Final Design.
I Spy Tank [IST15] was commercially released by I
Spy Tank company in Sweden, in the year of 2014. The
price of the I Spy Tank is 119 US $ (about 1.5 million
rupiahs). The I Spy Tank can be controlled by Iphone,
Ipad, or Ipod. The I Spy Tank can send video and sound
from up to 100 ft. unobstructed. I Spy Tank uses 6 AA
batteries for power supply. The device will be shown in
Fig. 3 below.

Figure 3. The I Spy Tank [IST15].

The rest of this paper is followed: chapter II will

describe the design and implementation of this remote
controlled car from hardware and software specifications
and how the system works, while chapter III presents the
experimental results and discussion, then the last chapter is
for conclusions and recommendations.

II. DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION

Nowadays, wireless controlled car is commonly found
as toy-grade radio controlled car with the focus on
reducing production costs and also for hobby grade radio
controlled which can be customized. The 2.4 GHz
frequency radio has been used in the hobby-grade R/C
Cars. Wi-Fi technology [JGP08] has been implemented in
wireless controlled car with high data rate (54Mbit/s +), but
Figure 1. Illustration of basic wireless controlled car. also high power consumption. It is used when you need to
connect directly to the internet, such as an internet-of-
things (IoTs) device, and have an external power source.
Generally, the system is divided into three parts [DJ10]: the
car-end, PC-receiver-end, and PC-control-end.
In this part, we are going to discuss the required
materials used for this project, those are for hardware and
software specifications.
A. Hardware Specifications
There are some hardware materials needed to fulfill this
project, like Arduino Uno as microcontroller, Wi-Fi
Module as transmitter and receiver, Motor driver IC, DC
motors and Power supply, chassis, and some other related
equipments.

Figure 2. Spybot Project [EB14].

A.1. Arduino Uno
Arduino Uno is an Arduino Development Board using
the microcontroller IC ATmega 328. Arduino Uno can be
programmed using the Arduino software. Figure 4 shows
the Arduino Uno SMD project board.
A.2. ESP8266 Wi-Fi Module

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Figure 4. Arduino Uno Smd [AUS15]. Figure 6. L293D pin configurations.

ESP8266 stands for Espressif Connectivity Platform,

8266 is the series. It serves as Wi-Fi adaptor, and can be
added to any microcontroller-based design. In this project
it serves both as transmitter and receiver. It will send the
signal from the computers or mobile devices to the
Arduino Uno. Figure 5 shows the ESP8266 module.
A.3. L293D Motor Driver IC
The 4017 is an IC (integrated circuit) that is designed to
allow DC motor to drive on both directions. It has 16 pins
Figure 7. Driving “algorithm.”
just as any other 16-pin IC. L293D can control two DC
motors simultaneously in any directions. It has voltage A.4. DC Motors and Chassis
supply range from 4.5V to 36V. Figure 6 describes about
DC motor has voltage supply range from 3-12 Volts. A
the L293D pin configurations.
9 V Battery is used to power the motors, and a power bank
There are 4 input pins for L293D, pin number 2, pin
number 7, pin number 10 and pin number 15. Pin number 2 is used to power the Arduino Uno. Figure 8 shows an
and 7 connects to output pin on Arduino for controlling left example of the DC motor and chassis which are used in
motor, pin number 10 and 15 connects to output pin on this project. The material for the chassis is acrylic with two
Arduino for controlling right motor. Pin number 3 and 6 wheels for steering and driving and one wheel for
connects to right motor, and pin number 11 and 14 balancing the car.
connects to left motor. The driving “algorithm” of this B. Software Specifications
project will be shown in Fig. 7.
Two softwares are used in this project. The first
software is Arduino IDE from Arduino’s website to
program the Arduino board, the second is Window’s
Notepad to design the HTML controller’s page.

Figure 5. ESP8266 module. (a)

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the ESP8266, it found out that the pins are reversed. After
reversing the pins, the problem was solved.

(b)
Figure 8. (a) DC motor and (b) chassis

C. Working Mechanism
Now we are going to explain about how the project was
implemented. First step is programming Arduino and
ESP8266, and L293D IC. The second step will be making
the controller. Here, there is no physical controller being
used because this project utilizes HTML page to control
the car. The logic is, first we connect to the access point
made by ESP8266, and then we navigate to the HTML
page that function as controller, and in the HTML page
there are some navigation buttons that can be pressed.
After pressing the navigation button, it will send a
command into the Arduino through the ESP8266. Arduino
will interact with L293D motor driver IC and will
determine how the motor will act. How the system works
will be illustrated by the block diagram in Figure 3.7. The
final step is to put all of the components in a chassis.

Figure 10. Received messages on Arduino’s serial monitor software.

Figure 9. Block Diagram of System’s Operation
B. Computer – ESP8266 Connection
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION After testing the connection between Arduino and
Before showing the experimental results and start to ESP8266, the next step is testing the connection between
discuss it, here we explain first the connection mechanism computer and ESP8266. This task is simply done by
between Arduino and ESP8266, Computer with ESP8266, connecting to the access point that ESP8266 has made. The
and Controller-Motor Connection. SSID is ESP_984D4D. After connecting into the access
point, this step is done. Figure 11 shows that the
A. Arduino - ESP8266 connection connection status is successful.
Arduino and ESP8266 connection will be tested using
Arduino software. Plug in the USB power supply into the
computer. Next, open the Arduino software, using the
software’s serial monitor. If there is a connection between
Arduino and ESP8266, the serial monitor will send a
sequence of message. The blue LED in ESP8266 will also
be turned on. Figure 10 shows the received messages on
Arduino’s serial monitor software.
When the first attempt of testing the Arduino-ESP8266,
there was an error happened. The serial monitor showed
nothing, this indicates that the connection is unsuccessful.
This problem was solved by checking the Tx and Rx pin on Figure 11. Connection status between computer and ESP8266.

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C. Controller and Motor Connection Table 1. Range-Testing Results

After testing connection from computer and ESP8266,
now the project can be continued to setting up the Results
controller and motor connection. Open the controller’s Distance Comments
HTML page, and click on the buttons shown in the HTML With Without
page. Make sure that the computer is still connected to the Obstacles Obstacles
ESP8266 access point, and the testing phase will begin.
There are four directions that needed to be tested. Forward, The signal bar
1 meter Excellent Excellent
reverse, left, and right. The Figure 12 is the preview of the is full
controller’s HTML page interface.
The signal bar
5 meters Excellent Excellent
is full

The signal bar

is full for
without
10 meters Good Excellent
obstacles, only
half power for
Figure 12. Controller’s HTML page interface. with obstacles

User may know that the connection is successful by The signal bar
seeing the directions of the DC motors. If Straight button is is only 2-3 bars
pushed, both DC motors will turn in the same way. If Right Poor
with obstacles,
button is pushed, only the right DC motor will turn. If Left 15 meters (car still Good
half power for
button is pushed, only the left DC motor will turn. If moves)
without
Reverse button is pushed, both DC motors will turn in the obstacles.
same way but in opposite direction from the Straight. And
if Stop button is pushed, no DC motors will turn. The signal bar
When attempt of testing the controller and motor is not detected
Poor Poor
connection was initiated, there was several errors occurred. with obstacles,
20 meters (car still (car still
The first problem was, when the buttons on the HTML only 2-3 bars
moves) moves)
page was clicked nothing happened. No motors moving at without
all. After checking, the error is caused by human error. The obstacles.
connection between computer and ESP8266 was not
established, it means that the computer is not connecting to Did not work,
the ESP8266’s access point. Author forgot to connect the 25 meters Negative Negative signal not
computer into the access point. The second problem is the detected
motors are moving randomly or not following the buttons
that are pushed. After several trials and errors, author
found out that this problem was caused by excessive From Table 1 we see that the results are vary depends on
commands on the controller’s page. ESP8266 execute one the range. The performance depends on the signal strength
command at a time, therefore patient is the solution here. on the device. For the one with obstacles, the problem
Do not triple click or click random commands, because the exists in range above 10 meters where the signal is not
commands will be queued and the controller will not work strong enough, and as for the one without obstacles, the
properly. It is recommended to click or send command one problem exists in range approximately 20 meters. So what
at a time. makes the difference between with obstacles and without
D. Range – Testing Results obstacles in terms of signal strength? The obstacles are
clearly interfering with the signal. The walls, doors, and
The range testing is conducted in two environments, with
furniture are the problem to our project’s range. If we
obstacles and without obstacles. Both testing are conducted
remove the obstacles, the maximum range will be 20
indoors. The one with obstacles was conducted in a two
meters long. Standard radio control cars operate in the 27
floor house full with doors and walls, furniture, and the one
without obstacles was conducted in an empty space of a MHz and 49 MHz, based on the frequencies, the maximum
badminton field. The facility being used was a laptop with theoretical range is about 11 meters.
no external antenna, along with the Wi-Fi Controlled Car.
Table 1 below describes the range-testing results.

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IV. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS added into the project so the car has separate motors
A. Conclusions for wheeling purposes and steering purposes.
In this paper, the expanded range of a normal radio- 2. The chassis of the car can be improved by adding more
frequency car using Wi-Fi has been implemented. accessories like gears, bumpers, full body kit, to
According to Table 1, the maximum range is 20 meters, improve the movements of the car.
comparing to the 11 meters of the standard radio control 3. The range can be improved by using external antenna
toy car. A well designed ubiquitous technology for on the Wi-Fi transceiver.
automobile that operates in real-time with a control system
has been created. As the testing goes well, the car can REFERENCES
move forward, backward, to the right, and to the left: in [TKS06] Tapan K. Sarkar, History of Wireless, John Wiley & Sons,
2006, pages 276-278, ISBN 0-471-71814-9.
any direction. [RCC15] Radio-Controlled Car, “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio-
B. Recommendations controlled_car.” Retrieved March 2015.
As a matter of fact, this project still has a lot of room [EB14] E. Bruckner, J. Kelch, and S. Chang, “Android Spybot,” ECE
Capstone Project, 5 June 2014.
for improvements. Below are some possible improvements [IST15] I-Spy Tank. “http://ispytank.com/index.php/i-spy-tank
that can be added to this project: white.html”. Retrieved March 2015.
1. The L293D motor driver IC can be improved by [JGP08] John G. Proakis, “Digital Communications,” 5th Ed, Mc Graw
Hill, Inc, New York, 2008.
replacing it with motor shields. L293D can only [DJ10] D. Jinbo, et al., “The Design and Implementation of of the
control 2 DC motors simultaneously, on the other hand Wireless Remote Control Car,” 3rd International Conference
motor shields can control more DC motors and also on Computer and Electrical Engineering (ICCEE 2010),
can control servo motors. It is also more published in IACSIT Press, Singapore (2012)
[AUS15] Arduino Uno Smd,
programmable and has its own libraries. Therefore the “http://www.arduino.cc/en/Main/ArduinoBoardUnoSMD”
car can be better controlled. Servo motors also can be Retrieved March 2015.

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