Padmalaya Rawal's Robots Gotta Go Fast — Thanks to 3D-Printed Wheels and a Modified Drone Motor

Maker Padmalaya Rawal has designed what he claims is the "world's fastest" 3D-printed robot wheel — driven by a modified drone motor for extreme speed.

"I am making mobile robots for a while now, but the one thing which is still not changed in my journey is the use of those slow yellow-colored BO motors and their boring wheels," Rawal explains. "So, I wanted to change it and this is why I came up with the fastest, compact, inexpensive, and 3D-printed BO motors which I think is an amazing upgrade for my upcoming robots which will make my robots go faster."

Designed to stand in for the usual small yellow battery-operated motors frequently found in wheeled-vehicle kits, Rawal's creation is based on a low-cost off-the-shelf brushless DC motor originally designed to drive a drone's propellers. It's not used as-is, though and needs to be split in half.

"We have to adjust the height of the shaft," Rawal explains. "[With the] grub screw […] removed, you can place the upper part of the motor on the suitable surface so that the shaft can go down while pressing. You have to apply a lot of pressure here, I have used a hammer to do the same."

With the shaft suitably adjusted, the lower half of the motor is added to a 3D-printed wheel hub with support pins to hold it in place. A rubber tyre, taking from an existing battery-operated motor kit, is added for grip, then the upper part of the motor connected to a 3D-printed mount before being slid back into the lower half again.

"To test the wheel I have used the ESC [Electronic Speed Control] tester, and the motor is working as I am expecting it to work," Rawal says of his design. "Why I am operating it at 50%? As I am holding the wheel in my hand and I don't want to kill myself because it needs a lot of force to hold it."

The full guide, including STL files to print the wheel hub and the upper motor mount, is available on Rawal's Instructables page.