Wifi robot hardware recommendations

[BTGirl]

I want to build a robot that will operate in my house on my wireless network.  I want to be able to control the robot via the internet while away from home.  I have seen various posts on this topic, though I still have questions. 

Here is what I was thinking, hardware-wise, which might be flawed:

Wireless bridge to connect robot to LAN
A microcontroller on a web server development board with ethernet and serial connectivity (such as: http://www.olimex.com/dev/pic-web.html)
An IP camera
A serial servo controller (such as http://www.lynxmotion.com/Product.aspx?productID=395)
RC Car

Does it make sense to set up a web server on the robot that I connect to and operate some sort of control interface GUI?  I want to set up this robot in the simplest fashion possible.  I am fairly competent in Python, so I would prefer a solution that would allow me to do some of this in Python, though I realize that might not be feasible.

Does anybody have any hardware or procedural recommendations?

Thanks

[Ro-Bot-X]

Look through Arduino Forum, they have a webserver library, also they have Ethernet shields and I think they managed to make a WiFly wireless ehternet shield. Just add a motor shield and your take of chassis and your ready to go because the IP webcam does not need any interface with the robot.

Good luck!

[billhowl]

Look at this DIY Router Robot. Using a Linksys WRT54GL

http://waterworkssg.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!6072C0FF429AF1FD!632.entry

[Soeren]

Hi,

To make life a bit easier on yourself, consider one of the ITX form factor PC mother boards for your 'bot.

• Mini-ITX (17x17cm)
• Nano-ITX (12x12cm)
• Pico-ITX (10x7.2cm)

Stuff it with eg. FreeBSD or any other *nix and you can Python away.
(Personally, I'd go for a compiled language for such application, even though I love to go PERL-diving, to get the maximum speed available).

That said, if you really wanna work (and curse) a lot, you can get Python (as well as PERL) running in a µcontroller.

[BTGirl]

Thanks for all of the recommendations.  I might go down the mini-ITX form factor PC route for simplicity.  To power the robot I was thinking that I would install two laptop batteries - one for the PC and one for the motors.  I want the robot to run while the batteries are recharging, so I am going to need to chargers that do not require the removal of the batteries, like a laptob charger.  Any recommendations on that?

[SmAsH]

do you want to have the robot charge on its own via contact plates or similar or just you plug it in?

[BTGirl]

I want to develop some system (contact plates or something of the like) that will allow the robot to self-charge and not require a person to plug it in.

[SmAsH]

there are quite a few posts about ideas like that of contact plates, search around on the forum and you
will be amazed at what you find.

[starbuck]

Well, I just bought a robot that does what you want, maybe Woot will have it again.  It's called "Spykee".  I was gonna hack into it, but decided not to yet.  It was 100 bucks. 

No worries,
starbuck

[kpmcgurk]

sure you can buy one for cheaper than making one, but what is the fun of just buying it? I would have to say that 99% of the fun of robotics is actually building and programming them!!

[SmAsH]

sure you can buy one for cheaper than making one, but what is the fun of just buying it? I would have to say that 99% of the fun of robotics is actually building and programming them!!

the other one percent is buying one and hacking the crap out of it?

[kpmcgurk]

no the other one percent is probably being able to say that "I made this robot" instead of "I just bought this thing on ebay" (but hacking the crap out of other robots is fun too)

[Ro-Bot-X]

In the latest issue of Robot Magazine there is an article about a PC based robot that is not bigger than Boe-Bot. It's name is Pepe Le Bot and uses a tiny Roboard (96x56 mm - smaller than Pico-ITX)  that is a bridge between a regular microcontroller and a motherboard. This board has a 1GHz processor and 256 MB RAM and 24 GPIO pins that are servo ready (PWM capable), 8 A/D pins, RS232 serial, TTL serial, I2C, SPI, 3 USB (host) ports, audio, LAN, mini PCI. You can use a micro SD card to load your favorite OS and an Open Source C++ library for easy access to the I/O. The board can be powered directly from the robot's battery, from 6V to 24V, but be careful, the servos are powered directly from the battery, so make sure you don't burn them. With this board you don't need any extra microcontrollers, just plug in your sensors and servos, a webcam, a WiFi USB stick and you're done. Use Roborealm, MSRS or whatever directly on the robot.

Here is a picture and the link for the board:


http://www.trossenrobotics.com/roboard.aspx

[billhowl]

I think the Roboard is good but for cost at $289.99 is abit on the high side, if you need to program in the Linux you may get the ARM9 board dimension 100 x 100(mm) for only $64 it have Samsung S3C2440A 400MHz ARM9 CPU, 64MB SDRAM, 64MB Nand Flash, 34 GPIO, SD Card

Here is a picture and the link for the board:

http://cgi.ebay.com.sg/Samsung-S3C2440-ARM9-Board-mini2440-from-FriendlyARM_W0QQitemZ120445604158QQcmdZViewItemQQptZBI_Electrical_Equipment_Tools?hash=item1c0b1e113e&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1262

[blackbeard]

on the subject of charging what about inductive charging. that way you just need to drive it over the pad and it will charge wirelessly. very inefficient though

[SmAsH]

on the subject of charging what about inductive charging. that way you just need to drive it over the pad and it will charge wirelessly. very inefficient though

yeah, that might take a while... longer than necessary...

[Admin]

Use the control electronics for the surveyor bot:
http://www.surveyor.com/
and put it on your own chassis.

A few years ago I managed to control it from a cheap $25 cell phone half-way across the US.