It's high time I got into one of the areas I really like - robotics & AI. I'm starting right at the bottom of the pile, so to start with I need a small robot kit that can run around the floor. It's the programming side I'm interested in, not the electronic, so I don't want to have to do too much soldering and certainly no messing around figuring out if X board is compatible with Y hardware.
but I am looking for other possible suggestions. I don't want to end up with a robot that is not flexible enough for custom programming, but it isn't clear how flexible that one is. The camera, for example - can its feed be handled manually for image processing in the future, and if so, does the language used by Arduino support a rich-enough set of functions to be able to manipulate such data (or is that not the way to go)? Can the camera be swapped out for another? Can other items (such as sensors, other motor / servo controllers) be connected in for expansion? I might be asking some blindingly obvious questions and I could just go ahead and buy it and find out for myself... but maybe there's a more suitable solution out there that someone knows of?
What options are there for high-level programming of such hardware, such as C++ / C# / Java?
It's best to think of the Arduino as an I/O device that can interface with sensors and motors etc and provide simple logic. If you have any tasks that require lots of data or processing speed, such as image processing or video processing, you should aim to do those on a computer rather than a microcontroller.
That makes sense. How easy is it to get data between Arduino and the PC in a format that something like C++ might be able to access? I'm guessing I'll find that out when I make a start but if I might need some extra boards to go with the kit for that, might be worth getting them up-front.
charliesixpack:
You might be better off starting with the Lego Mindstorms NXT or EV3. With these you will spend more time programming and less time building.
Thanks for the suggestion. I'd agree that they won't require much building, but on the flip side, the hardware looks rather proprietary and not very flexible - can they be extended with other I/O such as sensors, for example? I believe I read somewhere that there is a .NET layer for coding in C# for them which is good, but can you get the raw data from the camera(s), for example? Do they even have a camera in the eyes? A bit hard to tell
As a quick disclaimer before I start. I run Dawn Robotics (which makes the robot kit above), so I'm not entirely neutral here.
We've tried to make the Rover 5 kit nice and straightforward for people looking to build a robot that just works, and it is aimed at people who want to focus more on the software than the hardware. At the same time, the kit is made up of parts that can be bought separately, and which have fairly standard open interfaces. So it's fairly easy to use the components for a different robotics project later on, or to expand the robot by swapping in new sensors, or replacing the Seeeduino (Arduino compatible) with an Arduino Mega etc later on.
To clarify slightly, the sensor on the front is an ultrasonic range sensor, not a camera (apologies if I've misunderstood). To add a camera you'd either need something standalone like a CMUcam, or you'd need to add some more powerful hardware such as a Raspberry Pi. We do actually make a Raspberry Pi camera robot as well, but it's based on a different chassis.
We provide a sample wall following program to get people started with the robot, programmed using the Arduino IDE (C++). It's also very easy to add a bluetooth serial module onto the robot to control it remotely, and then you could control it using any programming language you want over a serial connection.
Anyway, hopefully I haven't laid the sales pitch on too thick. If you'd like any more information, then please drop me a message through our contact page, also, we have a forum here that you can post on.
Thanks for the suggestion. I had a look there, but I can't say I'm impressed. Some comments by users don't exactly sing their praises, and unless I missed some, none of the kits had Arduino or Pi included. So I'm going to pass on that option, but thank you.
abroun_dawn_robotics:
To clarify slightly, the sensor on the front is an ultrasonic range sensor, not a camera
Thank you for this answer. You did answer some of my questions, including a 'Oops!' about assuming that was a camera on the front. I admit I'm slightly disappointed at that, but I'll live
Any idea where I can find an Arduino-compatible camera? All the places I look say sold out. eBay is an option, as long as it is shipped within the UK and not from overseas, but the UK side doesn't seem to have anything.
