FRED-209: A Raspberry Pi-Powered, 3D-Printed Nerf Tank

Nerf guns may be fun to shoot at friends, siblings, and coworkers, but modifying one for robotic control is even better. Taking on this challenge, David Pride disassembled one, and found that the mechanism consisted of two flywheels to push the dart out of the gun, and a pusher mechanism to “give it a shove.” This was replaced by a servo mechanism for Raspberry Pi-based remote control.

To control the motors, Price used a ZeroBorg add-on board for the Pi Zero, as well as a PlayStation 3 controller to maneuver the tank.

From there, he got to work designing a custom platform to support the dart gun. While his design looked great, he eventually switched to a purchased Rover 5 chassis, as the motor he’d envisioned wasn’t powerful enough. After 3D printing out accommodations for the gun to fit on the chassis, including a tilt mechanism, it works quite well for target practice — as seen in the demonstration video below.