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Author Topic: capable robots made easy?  (Read 1664 times)

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Offline WhomBomTopic starter

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capable robots made easy?
« on: December 06, 2013, 10:19:12 AM »
Hi guys, I recently came across a robot "brain" that just might be what we've all been waiting for (well, me at least).

It's called UDOO, an Italian initiative that basically links a pretty fast Single Board Computer to an arduino. The SBC can run android or Linux, which would mean that it can run the open source Robot Operating System (ROS) on Linux (never tried it before though) or create an android app (trying hard to master the skill...) and connect to a webcam, monitor etc through usb and hdmi AND to servos and sensors through the arduino.

I just got a UDOO for work-purposes, but as soon as I get a holiday I think it would be great to try and make a door-answering robot; connect my doorbell to the robot through Bluetooth, have the robot videocall my smartphone over wifi if the bell is rang, and then use my smartphone to drive it to the door and open it. With me effectively videocalling whoever is on the other side of the door... would be awesome if that were a google delivery droid or something :D
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Offline jwatte

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Re: capable robots made easy?
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2013, 11:27:43 AM »
Why is the UDOO any better than an Arduino Yun, a BeagleBone Black, an Odroid-X2/U2, a Raspberry Pi, or a NUC-style PC, perhaps with an I/O board connected over USB?
I'm not saying it isn't -- I'm just saying that, from your description, I don't understand how you find it different or better.
« Last Edit: December 06, 2013, 11:30:50 AM by jwatte »
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Offline WhomBomTopic starter

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Re: capable robots made easy?
« Reply #2 on: December 07, 2013, 08:09:46 AM »
Yeah, I was a bit enthusiastic while writing my previous post  ;D And I should mention that money is (when is it ever not....) an issue.

The difference is, compared to the arduino yun, beaglebone or raspberry pi, the udoo has more "horsepower". I tried videocalling using a raspberry pi that was overclocked to 1GHz, but it was just asking too much. I'm assuming the beaglebone (also 1GHz if I'm not mistaken) and Yun (400MHz) would have the same problem.

The NUC PC with an I/O board would be a viable alternative, however as far as I know NUC PCS are still quite expensive (upward of 200$).

The odroid would be a good alternative, (more than good actually looking at the specs) but it doesn't have wifi and doesn't have an arduino built in. So I would have to buy a wifi dongle and an arduino or other I/0 board, putting me at around or over the same price of the udoo, with more hassle.

That being said, the Raspberry Pi actually is a very nice piece of hardware and for the price they charge you really can't go wrong, just too bad I couldn't get it to videocall  :(
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