I've been spending a lot of time with the rob...

April 05, 2009 by Adam in Adam's Projects

I've been spending a lot of time with the robot lately.

It started with Sam really wanting to get a Lego Mindstorm robot kit. After a couple weekends of frantic playing, it fell by the wayside. I'd been reading about various things you can do with the Mindstorm kit and decided that I'd hook it up to a web page, which you can find here.

The setup is actually very complicated. Clicking the buttons on the control page sends commands to my personal computer, which sends Bluetooth messages to the robot to do things. I've also got a webcam hooked up which drops jpg files every second on to the web server. There's also a page where people can post log messages in the robot's name.

Up until a few days ago, the main problem was that the batteries kept going dead. I decided to do my part to help the global economy and bought a new lithium battery pack and recharger. It now stays plugged in at all times, so robot power shouldn't be an issue.

Range is limited, though, as it has both a webcam and power cable hooked up. It would be fun to get one of those tiny, cheap laptops and hook up Skype to it. Then people could talk through the robot and move it around without the need of power cables. It's probably too frivolous to get past my self-imposed practicality, but it's fun to think about.

As I started plugging tons of USB cables to my 4-port hub, I quickly ran out of space. I ended up buying a new one and assembling a steampunk-style hub. This one has an LED in the base that cycles through the colors, giving the entire contraption an eerie mad scientist glow.