Hi. I am trying to control this simple robot with a few buttons. Would the best way to do this be to just connect wires from the "controller" to the robot with my Arduino Uno, or would it make sense to get some bluetooth/ wiFi/ Ethernet shield or board like the yun or Ethernet shield?
Thank you.
Ethan 
EQOxx123:
Hi. I am trying to control this simple robot with a few buttons. Would the best way to do this be to just connect wires from the "controller" to the robot with my Arduino Uno, or would it make sense to get some bluetooth/ wiFi/ Ethernet shield or board like the yun or Ethernet shield?
Thank you.Ethan
You could possibly consider using an IR remote control, if you have 'line-of-sight'. That's what I did with my little robot car for "Manual" mode. (It also has an "Auto" mode for autonomous operation.)
I just used a remote control for a device that's in another room, recorded the codes using the "IRremote" library's "IRrecv" example, then hard-coded them into my program.
Of course, you need to buy a demodulating IR receiver, TSOP4838 or similar, to receive the signals.
I imagine bluetooth would be the simplest and cheapest. If the wires you apparently have in mind are serial control, then bluetooth is essentially just a substitute - no extra programming required. About the most-read topic on this entire forum would be "android bluetooth joystick", which sounds like a good way to control a robot.
Nick_Pyner:
I imagine bluetooth would be the simplest and cheapest.
Not sure about cheapest. A TSOP4838 can be bought from eBay for $1 or less, with free delivery, and using an existing remote control costs $0.
(I see a TSOP4838 listed on eBay for AUD$1.00, which equates to USD$0.71.)
I suspect that the code overhead for IR remote control might be lower than for Bluetooth, too. (Not sure on that point, though.)
Also the user code for IR, using the "IRremote" library, is dead simple. The lib does all of the work.
Edit: But Bluetooth does have the advantage that it doesn't need 'line-of-sight' to communicate.
Bluetooth operates over a serial connection, the overhead is not too large.
The hardest part is getting an app that controls the Arduino, but with App inventor everybody can build an app.
It depends on the application. If it is line of sight, use IR. If it is not, or you want to control with your phone, use BT.
Hi. Thank you everyone for everything but I happen to notice most of these ideas re directed towards Android users. What is the best way to do something like this over an iPhone? Or is there not a way? Also, would you have to use a smartphone or could you use something that is almost just a thing you hold that is connected to the Arduino robot "somehow". Thank you again!
Ethan
As far as bluetooth is concerned, a cheapo HM-10 module works fine with iPhone and Android, and Arduino doesn't care which you use.
With an iPhone the biggest problem is at the iPhone end. This may well apply with other communication methods also. Is there an iPhone app to suit your needs? Probably not, but nobody can deny that there may be one tomorrow. For today, the short summary is - if you can afford an iPhone to play with, you can afford an extra $50 for an Android to do the real work.
Using a phone for bluetooth is pretty obvious, and making your own bluetooth controller can't be a good idea. Your resources would be better employed in making a slicker phone app. The matter changes with infra red, I'm not aware of any phone that has it, and probably for good reason. One of those $2 IR controllers may be all you need anyway.