Boe-Bot Help!!!!!!!!

awbball11

Okay I am building a boe bot and would now like to add add ons. I would like to be able to talk to the robot and it talk back to me. I would also like for every time I move for the robot to follow me. Is the Ping, PIR, and touch sensor enough for this? Also I want my robot to do other cool stuff any ideas?

Mike Green

1) You can use the EMIC (www.parallax.com/Store/Microcontrollers/BASICStampModules/tabid/134/txtSearch/emic/List/1/ProductID/108/Default.aspx?SortField=ProductName%2cProductName) to have the robot talk to you. Being able to talk to the robot is a different sort of thing and requires a lot of computing power that you're not going to fit on a BoeBot. There are some special purpose speech recognition chips, but they require a bit of support hardware and the software isn't really free.

2) Getting a BoeBot to follow you is not easy. A PING))) on its servo bracket is a good beginning. I don't think a PIR will be that useful since it is not particularly directional. A CMUcam would be really good for this since it has the ability to track a "blob" of a particular color.

awbball11

Ok thanks but how do I hookup the Speech Board since it doesnt have the right connectors?

Mike Green

The EMIC plugs into the breadboard on the BoeBot and you use jumper wires to connect it the way it's described in the documentation for the EMIC. The documentation includes sample code as well.

awbball11

ok Thanks. Will I be able to program to say whatever whenever? And what about the touch Sensor what will it be good for? or do i even need it?

Mike Green

Read the documentation!!!

The touch sensor is for detecting when the BoeBot bumps into something.

You tell me what it would be good for or whether you need it. THINK!

awbball11

Okay thanks. One more thing. How do I use beacon. Such as on the iphone u push a button and it drops an invisible beacon. How could I have a beacon on me and to summon the bot whenever.

awbball11

Oh also what do I need to get to speak the robot commands. Would this work? http://cgi.ebay.com/Parallax-Boe-Bot-PIC-You-can-hear-me-now-Yippeeee-NEW_W0QQitemZ260321839629QQcmdZViewItemQQptZLH_DefaultDomain_0?hash=item260321839629&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318·. I would like the speech board to also say thank you mr. wilbanks when i speak it a command or say yes i will. or watever.

Mike Green

In the back of the "Robotics with the BoeBot" tutorial, they discuss the use of IR for navigation and they give a schematic for an IR transmitter using a 555 timer. This can be used as a beacon and the IR detector on the BoeBot can detect it. The BoeBot can either circle around looking for the best signal or you could mount an IR detector on the same (add-on) servo bracket designed for the PING))) and that can scan around.

Mike Green

Like I said before, you won't easily be able to get the robot to recognize any verbal input. It takes a lot of hardware and computing power. There are some tricks for recognizing a few simple words with some specialized hardware, but it's not something you can just plug in.

For getting the robot to speak, READ THE EMIC DOCUMENTATION!!! If you have questions after you've read that, then ask, but read the whole thing first.

SRLM

Recently, there was a forum member who had developed a chip that could recognize keywords and sub-keywords, and output a signal based on the recognition. He was offering a module (or getting ready to) at about $60. It seemed like a pretty good module for the price and the fact that it was relatively simple for the user. Do a search on the forums for the thread if you're interested. BTW, I'm not sure that he ever went into production (at any scale), but he did have a test module that he was playing around with.

awbball11

I was not able to locate the forum.

SRLM

The link is here. I found it by doing a google search with the following arguments:

voice keyword site:forums.parallax.com

awbball11

Thank You

awbball11

Thank You