Step 1 - connect the phone to the robot

So the first step of my project is to make sure I can use my android phone to control my robot.  Since the last post I have decided to scrap the idea of using a Roomba (my Roomba was dropped and damaged).  So my platform of choice for the immediate future will be my E-Revo VXL by Traxxas.

Photo courtesy of Traxxas

In order to get the hardware signals out of my phone and to the ESC/servos of my car I will be using a IOIO.

Photo courtesy of Sparkfun Electronics

And in the spirit of not re-inventing the wheel I will be trying to use the source code from the Cellbots team.  Don't you love opensource software?  They currently don't have any official support for the IOIO, but out of the box their android code does support a browser-based remote control tool and sending images from the camera back to the controlling client.

A cursory glance at their codebase (I wish they were using Github because I love forking and pull requests) looks like they are making some assumptions about using Bluetooth for connecting to the robot, but I should be able to hack together a control class for my IOIO and at least get to the point where I can send some commands from my laptop/browser to the phone and passed onto my IOIO.  From that point it is just a matter of generating the PWM signals that my RC servos/ESC are expecting.

Tonight I got as far as getting the cellbots app on my phone and streamed images back to my laptop and sent some controls back and forth.  The IOIO just arrived in the mail this afternoon so I haven't had a chance to hook that up yet.

Welcome

So after spending (wasting) lots of time thinking about various ways I could keep track of my various technical hobbies I decided to just use the simplest good tool for the job.  This blog will basically just be a place for me to write down the things that I am working on in the following areas:

• Robotics
• Programming
• RC Aircraft (planes and helis)

I'll backfill some recent content so that blog isn't empty, but mostly I'll be focusing on upcoming projects.  The next big project on the list is taking an online computer vision course (http://www.vision-class.org/) which is slated to start this month.  I'll be taking the class along with my programming buddy Duane and I'll have a project to go with it.

Roomba! I have played with roombas before and rescued one from the D.I. for $10 which is how I got hooked.  For a long time I have thought about using my android phone to act as the brains and sensors for my roomba so I could get it to accomplish more complicated tasks like:

• Hunt for a tennisball
• Welcome guests at the door
• Wander around my office and deliver audio messages (trolling people most likely)

So with the computer vision class coming up I finally ordered a IOIO (http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10748)  which I have been thinking about doing for a while so I am just going to buy it and go get my broken roomba out of storage and hook them together.  Pictures/videos to come soon.