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Wifi enabled robot — Parallax Forums

Wifi enabled robot

noobmunchernoobmuncher Posts: 124
edited 2014-12-16 05:05 in Robotics
Hello,

I am a first year university student who has a few years of experience now building autonomous robots and the likes. However I need expertise on a new project of mine. I am building a droid for a "safe walk" security volunteer program I am a part of. It would basically just allow us to patrol areas without actually leaving the room unless needed. I need to be able to control it wirelessly and recieve live video feed. For the video I plan to use a IP wireless network camera because the campus is coated in wireless internet, but for the robot controls i need assistance. Originally I had planned on using a 2.4 full spectrum r/c radio which i have been told a decent one can cover a quarter mile, which SHOULD be enough. Then I started thinking though, is their a easy, yet somewhat affordable way of controlling the BS2 through wifi? This would allow it to go as far as the networks allow it and would be great for inside the school buildings.
My research has brought me to this
http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=9290
but how hard will that be to use? I can't exactly go around setting up routers, i need it to find the networks that aren't password protected (the entire school) and connect to them.

Any input on this matter would be greatly appreciated!

Comments

  • noobmunchernoobmuncher Posts: 124
    edited 2009-07-13 08:58
    By the way the camera i intended on using is:
    http://www.onhop.ca/Product/10197504?f=Shopbot
  • UghaUgha Posts: 543
    edited 2009-07-13 11:10
    Since you've got good wifi coverage and you need a webcam interface... I'd consider going another route personally.

    You could use either a nano-ITX board (kinda expensive but worth it to save bulk and power) or an old laptop as the
    "brain" to your robot.

    This would give you a simple windows/linux setup that'll give you all the functionality you'd like easily.

    Heck, for the price of the two parts you've mentioned you can get a decent laptop on ebay.

    You could hook up a $15 USB webcam and IM your 'bot to see it... then use either some VB, C, java, linux script, whatever
    language your comfortable with, and control the robot with that.

    For the physical side of the robot, just leave a BS2/SX/Prop connected to the serial or USB port to interface the outside
    world.

    Heck, you could even make it a web interface that you can control/view from anywhere on the planet [noparse];)[/noparse]

    If you need info on how to set this up, I'd be glad to help.
  • noobmunchernoobmuncher Posts: 124
    edited 2009-07-13 20:50
    Thats a great idea, see that is why I post here LOL I would have never considered this before. This is great because the IM makes the video portion way easier and this would also be decent on batteries. Unfortunately one rather large problem is that I have no programing experience with any of the languages you mentioned. I haven't ever had the need before. All I know is PBasic and a few other microcontroller languages. Is there some sort of premade one I can use or get help modifying? I really need to be able to control it from a website.

    Thanks for the help, if others have alternative ideas or can contribute to the above please do so.
  • John R.John R. Posts: 1,376
    edited 2009-07-14 16:34
    I'll offer another alternative. Some of the IP Cameras (admitedly more expensive than the D-Link model) have access to a serial port. You could then us the IP of the camera to communicate with the robot.

    I've successfully used an Axis 213-PTZ with a linksys bridge to go wireless, and used the serial port to connect to a propeller. There is no reason you couldn't do the same with a Stamp.

    I thought about going the PC route, but I wanted the PTZ (Pan Tilt Zoom) of the camera, and coudn't find a web cam with similar optics.

    That particular camera (the 213) also does Infra Red, and can "automagically" switch from visible to I/R. Slick camera, but not cheap.

    I've only see the serial port available in the relatively high end IP cameras, both "fixed" and "PTZ". In addition to Axis, I know that some of the Sony cameras have the serial port.

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  • UghaUgha Posts: 543
    edited 2009-07-15 10:34
    Hmm... no programming experience is a problem.

    Here's what I'd do:
    I'd get a friend (or pay someone, it should be cheap since its easy) to make a simple command-line serial out interface that the
    stamp can understand (correct baud rate and such).

    The command should be able to send strings of data (text) over the serial/usb port to the stamp from the DOS/console command line.
    Example:
    senddata "turn cam left 5"

    This should be a fairly simple program to write (I'd do it for you but I haven't written anything in C in like 8 years and my books aren't
    handy) and has the benefit of being scriptable in batch files.

    In the very least, you can VNC into your laptop/nano-itx and execute commands from the command line. This should get you going
    enough to have a test platform to get your robot working. You can make something more functional (mouse interface, feedback, ect) later
    once you have more programming experience or you find someone to help you out.

    As for the web interface, you need to find either a prepackaged program to do something like that, or you need to learn a programming
    language. This is outside of my experience range (other than actually putting the webcam on a webpage) so I can't give you advice there.
  • noobmunchernoobmuncher Posts: 124
    edited 2009-07-15 18:04
    All right that sounds good. So in a while once I am home, because I am currently in Europe, I will post an offer to pay for someone to do some code, first I have to test to see that the wifi signal reaches outside in enough places at the campus.
    Thanks
  • Adam WieslerAdam Wiesler Posts: 81
    edited 2009-07-18 02:17
    If you go the PC route, you could use RoboRealm, which is pretty neat. It allows you to create a network connection between two computers running it, send video, and open up a serial port. No code is needed to set up the connections, but to control you bot you might need a small vb script program. That is pretty simple to use, just follow some of the tutorials on roborealm's site and your good to go. Also, if your computer can handle it, most of the program is built for vision processing. you could even run the processor intensive tasks on a remote computer. Here is Roborealm's website. http://www.roborealm.com/index.php Unfourntatley, it now only is free for 30 days, it used to be completely free.

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  • Adam WieslerAdam Wiesler Posts: 81
    edited 2009-07-18 02:22
    Oh, also it has a web interface.

    Just be careful when doing any thing that might use a lot of computer power. I was using it for machine vision, and it kept crashing on every computer i tried it on. Hopefully they fixed it, or that would be a stupid way to spend 90$

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  • Tolon RexTolon Rex Posts: 1
    edited 2014-12-16 05:05
    You can buy a pan/Tilt/Zoom wifi enabled refurbished camera from Smarthome.com for $49.00 (Insteon) Hack the power supply, and place that on a mobile platform. It has IR as well as visual spectrum, and a built in mic. It retails for $79.99 but I have seen them refurbished ( and have one) for $49.99

    http://www.smarthome.com/insteon/cameras.html
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