I am hoping to soon have some time to start working on a new robot. We are currently building a house in on several acres. We have a very long gravel (read dirt and mud) driveway and a lot of logging trails.
One of our neighbors above us is a bit different and they have fenced their property with electrified barb wire, razor wire… I know that some of our other neighbors have cameras pointed at their property from these neighbors with cameras pointing at those cameras… We personally don’t like the idea that they may put cameras on our driveway and try to keep track of our comings and goings.
So what I would like a robot to do is to navigate around portions of our property. I would like it to have a camera on it, probably WIFI so it can broadcast it back to me. I would also like to see if there is some way to detect a video camera and if it is one that is triggered by motion, I would like to have the robot make enough motion to trigger it randomly. Also it would be interesting to see if there is some way to legally jamb the signal from their camera. Would pointing one of those laser flashlights directly at it temporarily block the input? At some point I would like to add some form of recharge capability where when the battery starts getting low it can find its station and start a recharge in much the same way as the iRobot vacuums do.
Suggestions? I am assuming my legged robots would not be up to the task. At first I was think maybe a tracked robot, but I think I would be better off with wheels. Do you think the new 4wd would be up to this. I wonder if there is enough ground clearance.
wth? do you live in minnesota or wisconsin or something?
low power laser might overdrive the brightness compensation of the camera to the point of making it useless. of course if their camera is panning that would not be possible to maintain.
if they are using hard wired video connections you can’t very well jam them.
Planting a big tree or building an outhouse right in front of the camera might be effective for awhile.
Actually paint ball gun equiped rov might do a good job of messing up the optics but then you are vandalizing their property and worse yet putting the idea of shooting at things into their head so might not want to go there.
I forgot to mention that the owners never talk to any of the neighbors and she is always packing a gun…
Yes, we will be planting a lot of trees. We planted 500 earlier this year and I have 2500 seedlings on order and will start planting again in a few weeks. And luckily our views are from the opposite side of the house.
But this is a good excuse for a new robot and we figure they will soon be putting cameras at our driveway entrance so I thought it would be fun to at a minimum trigger their camera every minute or two and maybe they would get the hint…
If you get a nice array of infrared LEDs it should be pretty easy to trip their motion sensor.
It would also mask whats creating the light from the video and wouldn’t be obvious if they peeked outside.
Try it with a webcam. When I did it by accident it appeared as a big blue circle from a TV remote.
While I don’t know the laws in the states (eh? lol JK ) It shouldn’t be illegal to have Cameras outside the neighbours houses. It would be argued by the neighbour that it is specifically for protecting their property and not to spy on anyone. Pretty legal here in Canada, I would’nt see why not…
Its not invasion of private property becuase as long as it is on the owner’s property, he could point it at the washington monument if he liked (you did say you lived in Washington DC? )
lol, anyways, this project seems cool. A nifty way to outsmart your neighbours (who hasn’t wanted to do that? )
actually on second thoughts the tree line and saplings might not be the correct pose to strike… they are defensive. you might consider going the other way by setting two or three very obvious camera mounts overlooking their property line, sweeping pan and tilts with IR beacons so they know you can see in the dark. someone with their apparent level of paranoia will definately notice and if confronted the reply is simply either “fair is fair” or “batf is paying you for the live feeds” and walk away.
Kind of stupid becoming some what aggressive toward people that are obviously seriously paranoid and well armed. If in their mind they get the notion that you are some how out to get them, they may make a preemptive strike by comming over and toasting you and your family with an AK-47. Best to just wave , smile, and be friendly.
I think someone with 6 different electric fences and razor wire would have a little more than just an AK-47. They could have a tank parked in their garage for all we know…
Its probably best to poke your nose somewhere else, but who says you can’t have some harmless fun with their insane security measures?
I’d say continue with the project, but with a different purpose to just have fun and see what you can do to sort of annoy them and hopefully get them to know how you feel without risking yourself going to their door and telling them face to face, not knowing that they have a shotgun with them when they answer the door.
So far I like the idea of an array of infrared leds to trigger any motion detectors as well as probably flood out their camera. Also if I do find that they have several cameras pointed at us, I will probably point one or more at them. One idea I have is to mount a wind generator on maybe a 125 foot tower and have a camera up on this one… But that is more of a secondary issue.
I first need to have the robot go along my gravel driveway and trails, to get to these locations. So the primary question is what is a good starting platform for this project? Do you think the new 4wd rover would be up to the task or would it get stuck in the potholes…
I suspect zoomie that you and I have different thresholds as to what aggressive is. I was suggesting a passive display comparable to anything they have on premise to raise a point rather than cowering behind some trees hoping the bad man doesn’t want to hurt you. thank you for the kind accessment none the less. the batf comment was a joke but in seriousness if these people have the level of fortification suggested by kurte’s description then I suspect homeland security, the fbi, and batf already know quite well everything there is to know about them.
kurte, I get the impression your driveway is pretty long so you might want to go a little bigger, something like some of evolutions smaller tacticle wheeled chassis size range. I wonder if one of those small electric kids cars could be modified with a linear actuator to operate the steering. you might find something like that at a yard sale or in the paper. you could relplace the motor controller in it with one of the big dimension engineering controllers so you have a little more sophisticated control. you probably want compass and gyro modules as well as more than one camera. nice thing is you are out of doors so getting rf range is much easier.
I don’t know about the state you are in but in Canada, razor wire is illegal. Private property or not. And coiled barbwire on the ground is also illegal.
It is also an invasion of privacy to have camera’s viewing someone elses yard or house. In Canada anyways. You could check into that to see if the authorities could do something about it.
Also consider that if they have that level of security on their property they are either, growing drugs, cutting coke, selling guns or are out of their minds.
What you describe is not normal behavior or precautions. Whether they are doing something illegal or not, if what you are saying is true, you should contact your local authorities and make them aware of the situation and your concerns. Something is not right.
If you must feed the bears, one of lynxmotions 4WD platforms would be perfect for a small security bot. If you need something bigger to, lets say, mount a paintball turret or LED array on , I can hook you up.
Just exercise caution if you start annoying them. You never know with some people and you don’t want them considering you a threat. Or they might decide to pay you a visit. Just be careful and exercise common sense.
If their cameras are infrared, you could mount many large reflector on your driveway pointing at the cameras. This could cause enough glare at night that it renders the cameras useless.
Yes, my driveway is about 500 feet long or about 152 meters for you Canadians . I may want it to travel on another 1000 feet or so on trails.
As for the neighbors, they have been at least 3 complaints against them from other neighbors and the county building inspector, fire marshall, state park ranger and like know about them…
This is a good excuse to build a robot! Actually something along the like of what Evolutions basic remote video with waterproof or winterproof and LED array looks like it would be just the ticket. I can not tell from the description how big that robot is as compared to the 4wd platform. Your products look very interesting and it is very tempting, but I also enjoy building them and trying out different things.
With the kind of terrain you are talking about, I would be primarily concerned about stability and ground clearance. Maybe hack a RC monster truck/rock crawler? That would give you dc motors, shocks, big wheels and higher clearance. You may want to incoporate some tilt sensors for judging inclines.
A wheeled bot is the best option in my opinion for this type of application. It would need to be 4 wheel drive as well. With tracks; sticks, stones, and other debris will get caught in the sprockets and cause problems.
A wheeled chassis would also be considerably less expensive to repair and/or replace. It sounds like you’re dealing with someone who is unstable enough as it is. If they feel that you’re spying on them, it isn’t entirely unthinkable that an “accident” might befall your rover some day when it’s out on patrol.
Nutjob neighbors are one thing. Irate nutjob neighbors who think you’re out to get them are quite another.
) It shouldn’t be illegal to have Cameras outside the neighbours houses. It would be argued by the neighbour that it is specifically for protecting their property and not to spy on anyone. Pretty legal here in Canada, I would’nt see why not… 
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