Homemade roomba anyone?

[Selenaut-14]

I've already got the idea of how it will work, but I was wondering if there is a camera part for a circuit (not a camcorder, but just the video camera part), and, if so, I would like to send the data via Bluetooth to my computer so that if I send it out on a mission somewhere in the house, I can record test videos and watch live.

In other news, I have realized how to make a roomba with cam without going out, buying it, and simply mounting a cam on it. A single switch remote will send a surface rc radio signal to the roomba, which activates it. In other words, it never fully powers down, but it lies asleep (unless you turn off the manual switch on the actual robot). It then goes into a routine of sweeping the room, and, using a sonar sensor, it will "see" what is in front of it. If something gets too close, it stops, turns 90 degrees, checks again, and if negative, goes forward a few inches, turns again in the same direction, and continues. It makes a (pardon the pun) sweep of the entire room until it reaches the second detected corner, goes on until it detects something, and finally stops. This is only a prototype and I will figure out how to add object avoidance later on. For now, though, I just want help on the cam.

Edit1: I may throw in an edge detector, just for the sake of it... And I need to know where to buy the camera, eg hopefully RadioShack.

[madsci1016]

Well. for the actual Roomba part, no need to reinvent the wheel.

Roomba's are very open. All models have a serial port hiding on them, that gives you full control of the Roomba. You can drive it around, and read all 20-30 something sensors they have on them. My co-worker has a Dell mini 9 laptop strapped to his, that he can tele-operate (vacuum the house from work, if you want to do that) and added some better obstacle avoidance.

You can just add a microcontroller, some additional proximity sensors, and have it drive around as you wish. Or something like a CMU cam for video based avoidance.

To find the serial protocol, google 'Roomba Open interface' and you will find it.

[Selenaut-14]

No I'm not gonna spend all the money on the real thing. See, I am making one from scratch so that I save money on sensors I don't need and the added profit margin thrown in to the price of a normal roomba. All I need is pretty much everything in terms of circuitry for the $50 robot, with a few mods to the setup and a few throw-ins, including (obviously) the sonar and the cam, along with (not so obviously) a second LED to use as a light in dark spaces. I'm not in need of the real deal with dozens of "features" and sensors. I'm just making a very simple, surveyable, self-operated vacuum cleaner. I can make it do most of the things a roomba can, and over the years I can always add more.

Two things:
yes, I would use a breadboard (still not sure if I'm taking this on)
I could call it SUCR (Simple User-based Cleaning Robot).

[Selenaut-14]

You can just add a microcontroller, some additional proximity sensors, and have it drive around as you wish. Or something like a CMU cam for video based avoidance. 

dumb question: CMU?

[SmAsH]

Its a camera used with microcontrollers, google it.

[Selenaut-14]

Ok, now all I need is a camera and a way to get video fed to my computer and recorded... Unless CMU can do that. Can it?

Edit: cmu is definitely out of the question. Way too steep of prices. I just want the camera part, a way for it to connect to my computer, and save the data there so that I can watch it.

[Selenaut-14]

It looks like for now the bluecam is just an addon idea... It seems like there really aren't any on the market, a camcorder is too big, and making one looks like it would take me a lifetime to figure out.

[Asellith]

Try a wifi based webcam. Still steep prices. Upwards of $50 or so. Check ebay for broken/used roombas. Check for ones that looks like simple fixes. If you can't fix it just ebay it again. The problem I see with what your trying to do is navigation with simple sonar you can avoid stuff but unless your tele-operating it from the PC then whats the use. It will just drive around randomly and not clean much. what you described earlier will just sweep the corners of an empty square room. To make it work well you'll need wheel encoders and object avoidance sensors. some tricky math and mapping programming plus the camera and way to prevent it from leaving a room till its finished. I think the roomba uses invisible wall IR kinda beams or something at the door ways.

You can't just move over 1 robot length and drive around the room again. thats what the encoders are for and those are inaccurate as well. If you can see all 4 walls from the center of the room with you sonar sensor maybe you can fake a pattern that just checks each lap and adjusts to a new starting distance.

[Selenaut-14]

I could also just write a really complex logic mapping system that creates a map grid in units of rotation. Once it found all traversable blocs, it programs itself to sweep all blocks while vacuuming. It sort of explores it's surroundings.

[Soeren]

Hi,

Before you have something vaguely functioning, you have spent more than a Roomba cost, but at least dit will be a learning experience

Heres an idea for a cheap sweep

And forget about the cam, you know how your home look and you don't wanna watch Broom Tube all day anyway