I would like your help and particularly some ideas!!! :
I have a project to do, that has to do with a wireless sensor array that will have some movement in the nodes. The communication between nodes/robots I think will be point to multipoint probably. The range of the wireless links is not a problem, the demonstration will be inside a big room. [smiley=thumbup.gif]
For example there will be 5 simple robots(=2 continuous servos, a PING sensor and/or some ir sensors to avoid walls etc), with some sensors on them (temp, humidity etc).
If the temperature in one robot is over 40 degrees, the others will be notified via wireless communication and the will move (not necessary towards the one robot, just some move that indicates that something is happening to one of the nodes/robots).
The lab in the university has some Tmote Sky wireless sensors (and the company that produced changed name from Moteiv to Sentilla and has discontinued the product) and some Boe Bots from Parallax with some extra Javelin Stamp Modules.
The problem is that Tmotes and Javelin Module has to be programmed separately in a different language and I don't have time to learn both languages and the hardware to work with what I have in there.
I thought that there would be a solution with arduinos and xbees or something similar and I thought to post here for some brainstorming!!! [smiley=vrolijk_1.gif]
I have already made with my arduino a simple robot that moves around, has 2 temp sensors (DS1631) and prints data to a lcd or to serial monitor [smiley=thumbsup.gif], but I haven't done anything wirelessly with a Xbee or some RF transceivers.
Any ideas? :o I just want some help to make sure that the whole project is possible with arduinos and some wireless modules etc... :-/
Cheers, [smiley=dankk2.gif]
stam
P.S. If I posted that in the wrong category please forgive me...
Based on what you have stated, it shouldn't really be much a problem for an Arduino to control such robots in the way you want; I am not seeing (once again, based on your description) any issue with there being an I/O pin count bottleneck or anything. Just keep in mind that you will want either a nice battery pack or two packs (grounds wired together) to drive both the servos and the Arduino, or you will see issues like the Arduino resetting when you power up a servo or something.
I'll have that in mind about the power consumption!
I just checked online and I am so confused about the wireless part of the whole project. :-/
What modules to do choose and what versions. For example, there are a lot different version of XBees or a lot of other RF modules but I can't find libraries for them... :-/
The XBees come in two series - 1 and 2.5. Series 1 models work well for point to point (or multi-point). Series 2.5 are for mesh networks.
There are regular and pro versions. Same capabilities. The Pro can broadcast farther, at the expense of higher power consumption.
There are 3 different antenna types - chip, wire, and external. The chip has the shortest range; the external antenna has the greatest range, if properly matched to the XBee.
There is a library for the XBees, but basically, they just take data sent to the serial port and broadcast it, and take over-the-air data and put it on the serial port.
So, Serial.print to broadcast, and Serial.read to receive, and make up your own protocol (what commands to send and how to identify the sender).
It was an amazing summary of the whole XBee technology/product line!!! ;D ;D ;D ;D
I'll probably do the whole project with Series 1 XBees and that is because I couldn't really find neither here nor through google any successfully done projects implementing mesh networks with arduinos
