The biggest issues with full computer robot implementations is size, weight and power. A microcontroller based robot can typically be run off a few small batteries. A full size computer easily creates a bigger chassis, bigger motors, bigger batteries circle.
There are quite a few large robot projects that are based on netbooks or notebooks or (usually small) computer main boards. But to get from the ‘computer’ to motor/servo control and sensing, you’re probably going to need some sort of micro controller or interface device, such as a servo controller board, or phidgets devices. (Pricey.) So it STILL pays to get a picaxe, or arduino, and try connecting servos and sensors to it. Then when you know your way around them, you can start getting into more advanced control systems using a serial link to a full sized computer.
But that still doesn’t necessarily mean that the computer has to come along. The computer to micro controller can be any of a number of serial RF links.
If you’re absolutely set on a full sized computer controlled robot, then you’ll likely end up looking at something like Robot Operating System, Roborealm or MyRobotLab.
And as Maxihirez pointed out, these projects do tend to get complicated and take a long time.
In hobby robotics the trend is toward small for budget reasons. Small and low cost means microcontroller instead of pc. It also means low power requirements. There are some robots about that are basically a laptop on wheels but they are not common perhaps because of cost or it could be because they resemble a pc on wheels more than a robot.
But sure, I can give a great example of a very cool robot that has a mighty powerful pc on board and that would be willow garages PR2. Have a look at the size of it and the cost. I don’t think there’d be too many that can afford 2-300000 dollars for their hobby.
In all fairness I have to point out smaller bots with pc’s like a lot of the smaller humanoid bots but again we’re talking prices in the thousands. One of the nicest, the alderberan nao costs 16k.
The raspberry pi may change this. As it is a very cheap, very small, powerful little pc about the size of a credit card with very low power requirements. However, there are a lot of people waiting anxiously for this and pre-ordered but I wouldn’t hope for one too soon. They seem to have had one hiccup after another and it is seriously much later than expected.
So I guess commercially robots with pc’s are very common. But in hobby robotics they are scarce. If you analyse why? It seems to be mainly related to cost and size. But I would also suggest it is complexity and the necessity of a team to develop them.
I watched a video about the beaglebone recently where they blinked an led on this tiny linux pc. I went away with the feeling that, it was a lot of effort to blink an led on it compared to a microcontroller. But I guess as libraries are built, the number of lines of code needed to be manually entered would reduce.
Don’t underestimate the power of a microcontroller they can do a lot for their size. So much I think that it keeps people in this realm because of the complexity of programming and wiring multiple sensors and actuators together into a form and function for a practical purpose.
Why would you need a pc to make a start here robot or a line follower or maze solver, sumobot or any of the other common single purpose hobby robots? The only sensor that I can think of immediately(although there are others) to justify an onboard pc would be vison with a camera. But there is only a small percentage of people that delve in this field here and the need is diminished by using a wireless camera and communications to interface the microcontoller in the robot to a desktop or laptop pc.
The point I would make has been lightly touched on.
CPUs have only processing power, no ram, no input/output. Microcontrollers have processing, ram, and I/O all built in. The reason you don’t see robots built with old CPUs is because, as has been stated, the support circuitry is power hungry and typically significantly large. To use a CPU you would require some form of RAM, storage, and access to the I/O ports. That usually requires a motherboard. A microcontroller has all of that on a single chip and requires little space or power to give you access to those objects.
When people decide to add a computer one direction is to lean towards System On a Chip (SOC) or small single board computers like beagleboards, raspberrypi, and others.
It just seemed like to me that there are so many old CPU’s that are being wasted and I didn’t know if you could program them like say a Microchip PIC chip or not. But that has been cleared up for me! Thanks again for the info. I think I’ll use MCUs for the time being. At least till I’m ready to get into ROSS and some A.I.s.
Thanks to all for the straight forward answers! And not making me feel like I asked a stupid question! That means a lot to a newb!
The cheapest android phone (new) I can find is below $70 and it comes with a 800Mhz cpu, a supported OS, a full set of programming tools, not to mention a large touch lcd, usb, camera (or two), a large battery, wifi, speakers, GPU, SD card slot, bluetooth, mic, GPS, and many other sensors, in a small package. (search ebay for Samsung Vitality)
Then you can DIY or use something like IOIO to control the additional sensors or drive motors for robotics
I also think the andorid phone price may be cheaper each year.
I predict great things in the future. With the release of the Rasberry Pi, you get the size and power consumption of a MCU, and the computation power of a CPU. I guess people will start developing add-on boards like the Arduino Shields.
Personally I like my microcontroller because it it easier to use for physical stuff right out of the box. It for instans has a servo connection and a servo command line. I am not a computer coder guy, but I was programming my servos and motors and sensors in a couple of hours.
To summerize : it is an ITX mother board with the latest Atom Cpu (dual core 1.8Ghz I think).
What makes it interresting ? First, more than mini ITX, it is a “thin mini ITX” (2 cm height) AND the power supply : you can plug directly a notebook power supply (12v, 5A) or any batteries that could fit !
