Has Anyone Here Tried Netbook Controlled "$50 Robot"?

[GosuSheep]

Greetings All,

I am going to attempt to build a $50 robot when classes are over. After I am successful with that, my plan is to control the robot via a netbook, some C or C#, and a digital I/O board, as opposed to any already available tools for this. Just thinking about it, it does not seem to be too difficult. Would just start by having 2 outputs for each servo; 1 being to rotate, 0 not to rotate.

Before I get too excited, is there anything I am missing here that would make this project a lot more complicated?

Thanks in advance for your replies.

[newInRobotics]

Before I get too excited, is there anything I am missing here that would make this project a lot more complicated?

How are You going to pass PWM signal from PC to servos?

[GosuSheep]

With the original construction of the $50 robot, inputs are given through the photoreceptors. My plan is to basically replace the photoreceptor inputs by digital inputs. Everything else would (initially) be the same; minus some potential changes to the code.

[newInRobotics]

I think I lost You  First You want build $50 robot controlled by Netbook and not microcontroller (as in original design), and now You say that Your "plan is to basically replace the photoreceptor inputs by digital inputs. Everything else would (initially) be the same; minus some potential changes to the code.". So which way You want it to be, microcontroller, or netbook, or both? 

[jkerns]

If the objective is a low cost laptop / netbook controlled robot - the L2Bot might be a good system to emulate
http://www.robofest.net/l2bot
A couple DC motors and a simple motor controller that takes commands (forward, right, left, etc.) via a serial port.
The laptop does the heavy lifting (navigation, vision processing, etc.)

[GosuSheep]

Sorry if I was not clear.

The idea is to first make the $50 robot (which, Admin requests the use of a microcontroller). After completing that project as, I would like to move on, and then start controlling the robot with the use of a digital I/O board and all the other items already used in the $50 robot instead of using something like Arduino.

Instead of giving inputs from photoreceptors, I would then give inputs via the netbook.

EDIT: Also, I'd like to work my way from the ground up instead of using some prebuilt stuff like L2bot. Also, L2bot is more expensive than I'd like. I've already purchased $50 robot stuff and already have a netbook.

[rbtying]

If you get a USB-TTL serial converter (such as the FTDI breakouts available nearly everywhere), you can interface with your $50 robot controller using its USART, which saves you the cost and pain of the separate digital IO board, and is just generally useful overall.