Help needed to communicate with Robo at 500 m range

[sudhanshu1990]

Hi there,
I am a beginner in robotics and not much well versed in electronics so needed your help to build a Robo which can be controlled wirelessly within a range of 600 meters ( I can't use RC cars, I have to make my own design.) and I need to get live feed from the camera on board.
I want to use AVR atmega16 microcotroller as I have some experience with it.
Can someone tell me basic steps about how I should start and what all the things I need??..
plz reply soon as I have only one week for this.....

[SmAsH]

Well, first you have to design the robot, and decide whether to buy or build a board with the mega16 on it.
So, you have to build the radio transmitter?

[Pratheek]

500m is long.

For controlling your robot you can use Zigbee modules. You will be able to interface it with the Atmega16.

 For the video transmission, you can use a long range RF wireless camera. It should be available in ebay. IT should also be available in sites that sell accessories for RC planes, UAv's, etc.

[Soeren]

Hi,

Can someone tell me basic steps about how I should start and what all the things I need??..
plz reply soon as I have only one week for this.....

What you really really need: More time and less distance (whether it's 500m or 600m).

Since you have to ask, you probably have to buy ready made modules for most of it and the shipping time can be much more than a week.

500m is not trivial with only the steering. The video feed is best left to a ready made wireless cam.

Now if only you had been right on it the day you got the assignment...

[sudhanshu1990]

Well.....I have to submit design parts in one week......Construction will be done later...It's something like I have to give complete blue print (with the details of the parts being used and ckt. connections)...
We've got two boards on which  Atmega16 is  mounted already.
Readymade Wireless webcam would have worked but we need to develop a software application to control the robot too and live feed has to be displayed through it. So unless we are not able to redirect video feed to our application it's useless.
Actually I am from CS background so not much experienced with electronics.
We are almost done with the mechanical design of our robot....but stuck up with the communication thing.....
We need to know following thing in detail:
1. How to transmit control signals to Robot upto a range of 500m
2. How to receive and process live video feed from the robot
3. Which devices to use
 

[Jumper]

I cant really offer any specific solutions to your question but, I have been conceptualizing this solution for about 5 years and I'm finally getting around to building my first robot.  Anyway, making a couple of assumptions here that you need to communicate with the robot anywhere and up to 500M.  WiFi is readily available but its too short range.  RC control too short range and not reliable enough.  The only wireless network with enough range that is available everywhere (for the most part) is cell phone.  Cell phones with web browsers might be your solution.  Verizon or AT&T now makes a phone that functions as a WiFi hot spot for up to 5 devices. So, you would use the cell phone network for your 500M anywhere range requirement and the phones WiFi capability to make the communication link to your robot.  Most phones have GPS navigation ability so there might be some inbedded navigation solutions there.   

(This is my first post on this forum and I'm really speculating here but in theory at least, its possible with off-the-shelf components.)

[airman00]

Perhaps you would need this new product I released. Its a cellular module
http://blog.narobo.com/2010/03/announcing-new-product-dronecell.html

[sudhanshu1990]

thanks for the replies...But I have some limitations here......first: I can't use cellphones, second: I can not use any product which is built by someone else....which means all the major components I have to built from scratch......cn any one here give a step wise guide to me with the device specifications I need only design,Later we'll think about production......Plz help only 5 days remaining...
Once again I will mention the required devices:
1. A mechanism to control the robot wirelessly throush a self devloped computer Application(500m is required)....I tried to use RF transceivers with HT12e/d ICs but they are not working up to that range.

2. A mechanism to get the live video feed from the video cam fixed at the robot to computer so that it can be used with the s/w application.

[chelmi]

So you have to design *from scratch* a radio transceiver with a range of 500m, with very little knowledge in electronic and radio technologies. I'm curious to know more about the context...

Anyway, maybe you could take a look at xbee pro, they have a range of about 1500m
 http://www.sparkfun.com/commerce/product_info.php?products_id=8742

The video camera is already chosen?