Controlling a robot from a computer/phone

Community General Discussions
1

Hey everyone,

So, I just finished building the Start Here robot, and I think I caught the bug. Im hooked, and trying to compute the wealth of information, but am sort of failing at it.I took a semesters worth of java, and taught myself basic to do work on the start here robot, and thats really the extent of my coding knowledge, and have never ever been exposed to servos and moters etc, so i am pretty much a kid in a candy shop, if the candy shop was full of candy i had never seen or heard of.

Anyway, my goal is to make a robot that I can control from my computer, and then later my phone. I understand that I need to get the computer to send out a signal, and then get the robot to recieve it, compute it, and return the information, but how do i go about doing that?

Im sure there are special parts involved, and stuff i have never heard of... can anyone who knows whats going on point me in the right direction? Give me some vocab, examples of things that do that etc? I'm sure once I know what I am looking for I start to educate myself and build, but I need a direction to look!

Guys and gals, thanks so much for reading, and I appreciate any help you can give me! Its a pleasure to join the community!

Zach

2

yeah y not?

PAL,IVE THOUGHT about this and ive made a very ingenious thing .it may not work on the whole robot but there are a certain places where it might work.first i took a laptop with a bluetooth connection.then i took  a mobile phone with a bluetooth connection,ripped open the covering and was left with a green board.then i took out the camera and placed it on a stand.after that i took some remote  controllers from a couple of cars<it was hard work>.but first and the foremost,il tell you about mobiles.they have a thin silver covering over their buttons.when pressed they connect the two free ends placed behind them.coming back to the project,i connected the two free ends to the ok button, then another two to the options button,then to thedown button.first you will need an overview of the working.for this you have to already set the phone on the camera mode.<always use a worn down or useless phone which is still working>

1.first you activate the ok button from the control

2.then activate the the op itons button<you have to calculate all this as you have to access from a lond dist.>

3.then scroll down till the send via blue tooth

4then find your numb fr the laptop.

5.click send and there yuve got your pic from the robots cam.

3

Start with your Start Here Bot

Your SHB provides the platform to learn what you’re trying to do. Check the manuals for the serial communication between Picaxe and PC. Commands like sertxd and serrxd. Set up a simple little program to run one motor clockwise when you send the letter “C” from your PC in the serial terminal provided by the Picaxe Program Editor.

Now you’ve built the prototype for a remote controlled robot. From here you must choose how to expand your knowledge. Do you want to learn new programming languages? Or build a more complex robot? Or use wireless serial communications? Or integrate the communications with some internet-like connection?

At any rate, after this first simple experiment, you will be able to ask much more specific questions. Here in the forum for example. Feel free.