I am a electronics student looking to use the arduino platform to build a wifi pc controlled rover with an arm for picking up small objects. i also want to include a video camera and distance sensing. I have purchased a few shields but am still trying to figure out if any type of software could make this project easier. looking for help and adfice
I am not sure what you are asking.
Yes you need software.
Forget trying to involve the Arduino with anything to do with video.
i have been looking online for any interface programs to control the rover and arm but have come up empty handed. looking for control interface suggestions involving a pc laptop.
the attachment is what i am trying to make. hope it helps. any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
project summary.docx (15.7 KB)
Hi electrostudent!
I too made a robot for school a few months back that was controlled remotely by a pc and interfaced by a laptop. Here are a few points that will hopefully point you in the right direction.
-For the control system (communicating with the control computer, transmitting video, ect.), you should try to implement a small linux single-board computer (such as the raspberry pi or the beagleboard). This will make it a lot easier because both boards (I personally used the raspberry pi) have usb onboard so you can connect a webcam and control them through a wifi dongle using ssh or vpn.
-For the low level control, such as moving the camera arm, making the rover move forwards/backwards, and interfacing the sensors, you can use a standard arduino with a motor shield. If you use the official arduino shield (what I used), it'll be a lot more convenient because it also contains a motor controller and servo connections so you wont have to worry about separate control circuits to drive more power-hungry motors.
-For the distance sensing, I personally used an ultrasonic rangefinder (Ping))) from Parallax) because there is already a library for it, but any sensor should work fine as long as you code it in properly.
-For the software, I had my motors, servos, and sensors connected to the arduino which took their input and sent it to the raspberry pi through i2c. I then had a python program on the pi that displayed all the data (including a cool looking radar screen for the rangefinder) and allowed me to make the robot go forward, rotate the sensors (the camera was fixed on mine). I controlled the computer through VNC over a local network so I could use the python graphical user interface.
I hope this information helps, please let me know how it goes!
Cheers!
Mr_E
mr_electric,
thanx for the info. is the raspberry pi or beagleboard compatible with windows 7?
Well, it all depends. The raspberry pi is designed for Linux and comes with a modified version of Debian (called raspbian). The pi is capable most things you'd be able to carry out on a desktop machine including ssh and vnc. The pi also is the more cost effective choice, running for about $35-45 USD. On the other hand, the beagleboard is compatible with a wider range of operating systems such as Ubuntu and Windows compact embedded 7 and can carry out the same tasks as the pi, just for a slightly larger form factor and a price of $140-180 USD. I also believe android has been ported to both boards and performs quite well, but for you I would strongly recommend using a Raspberry Pi with raspbian and controlling it through ssh....I believe that there are windows applications out there that will allow you to connect the board using ssh or Vnc on a windows client computer. Alternatively you can use an application like Vbox and install a virtual Linux machine on your widows computer and bridge it to your local network to control the pi (like what I did).
Hope this helps!
Cheers!
Mr_E
Hi, electrostudent and Mr_electric,
I just fund this forum string and found it most interesting because I'm in a very similar project right now. Mine is also a project of a robot (submarine) with a Arduino shield + motor shield + PC (probably Rspbrry Pi) remoteley controlled via wifi while not submerged.
Thank you mr_electric for your advise, I guess I will be asking you a lot about your experience in a near future...