Netbook Arduino Robot with Network Control

[marcosx003]

que pedo...



[clwillingham]

wow, i made something almost exactly like this, except it was controlled directly via Skype.

[Brunoctm]

why dont u share this project?

[CalcProgrammer1]

@Brunoctm If you want the code I will post it somewhere, I don't mind giving out the code. I made a post on Instructables about the Arduino robot as well.

[turtleD90]

@CalcProgrammer1 Please do the intractable or post the code it would be very beneficial to me and many others (:

[ThEeDaRkOnE666]

I can see this being of benefit to the American market... Make their laptops come to them... lol :)

[AKSoapy29]

How do you control the VeX motors? Cause I got a few I'd like to get running

[CalcProgrammer1]

@AKSoapy29 The Vex motors are continuous-rotation servos. They work like any other servo works, you generate a pulse of length from 1ms to 2ms. A 1.5ms pulse is center (for continuous rotation this is stopped), a 1ms pulse runs full speed one direction, 2ms the other direction, and you slow it down by using a value in between. If you're using an Arduino there is a built in servo library that works well with them. Note that they need 12V instead of 5, but the control signal is 5V.

[adamhermie]

But can it run Crysis?

[mashersmasher]

that's really well done! does it have a camera on the monitor? if so you might want to try using something like skype to stream video and sound. if you have an ipod touch and can write a program to read mouse movements then you can use something like jumi or airmouse to control it as well.

[CalcProgrammer1]

It does have a webcam, I use VLC to stream it to my PC and it works great, it's just not shown in this video. I don't have any Apple products but if I figure out how to program Windows Mobile I do have an old Axim PDA that would make a decent controller.

[wst2237]

really cool ;)

but which hardware do you need to make a network controlled robot?

[CalcProgrammer1]

I would recommend a microcontroller platform (the Arduino is good for beginners and works well for small robots, more advanced users can use a plain AVR microcontroller [what the Arduino is based around, though simplified], and if you need more power then go with ARM) and either a network interface (like Ethernet or Bluetooth module) or a basic PC (either a netbook laptop or a small, low power motherboard with network connection).

[iscreamscene]

lmao thats amazing :D

[bronie12345]

portable laptop!

you can also make your own controller on batteries with the Xbee...

then you can controll it without controlling it through a laptop (so, you control it with your own-mad controller, platform receives it, and starts moving).

[CalcProgrammer1]

The point of using the laptop (netbook) is that it can do more advanced networking. The netbook has a webcam that can stream info back to the controlling PC and if I had a data plan I could use the broadband modem to drive it from anywhere. Maybe after I get better at programming I'll give OpenCV a try, it's an advanced computer vision library, could maybe make the robot follow lines or chase a ball or something.

[bronie12345]

controlling it with only the arduino might get rid of some lag in the pc (seeming netbooks aren't that fast...

you might want to check out this vid:

watch?v=aSMj-evshlo

it could help you building it so to chase something

[CalcProgrammer1]

There really isn't any lag other than the network, the netbook-Arduino link is very reliable. The netbook is also a lot faster than the Arduino considering it is full x86 instead of an AVR microcontroller.

[bronie12345]

yes, but when you make the moving fully by the arduino, the laptop doesnt have to run a extra program so, has more cpu power left for giving the image etc...

[CalcProgrammer1]

Right now the Arduino just sits in a loop, it starts by looking for a series of start bytes in the serial buffer, if it finds one reads 3 more bytes, and sees if the "frame" is valid, then if so it either changes speed or sets speed limit. The motors keep spinning if the computer doesn't send a new command, need to implement some sort of timeout though so it doesn't crash into stuff when the network drops.

[bronie12345]

then, if you keep the networking through the laptop, you might let it check if it still has a connection. and if it has not, it gives a signal to stop the wheels

[Habbloxian]

you should do a UStream based on what you can do with the IdeaPad's built-in webcam.

[Dante249]

You are a genius!

[dale456654]

That really is a wireless laptop :)

[BYProductionsss]

This is awesome!!!!!