IP Camera based robot

I recently purchase some motorized ip – cams from Foscam.

I was thinking to place them around my house so I could access them from the web.

This camera come with a lot of functions and options ,its also have a relay for alarms and sensors.

After a little research I discover that it`s basically a linux on an ARM chip with a JTAG option on the pcb.

What is really good about the Foscam brand is that they have good technical support and they releasing a new firmware version very often.

Also there is complete PDF file that document all the CGI commands that this camera support.

The one thing that is really important for robotics is this CGI command :

Comm_write.cgi

With this command one can ‘tell’ the camera to send a serial info to its serial port (JTAG) and this serial port can be connected to any other mcu via serial.

After I finish this R&D about the camera serial port it`s time for the chassis,and this is my victim:

It has a rechargeable 7.2v battery and a motor controller with a h-bridge that is easily can be hacked and its also a all terrain .

The motor controller:

I look for a close data sheet for this chip and realized where to connect the forward,backward,left and right insted of the desoldered chip (I put a socket).

And then the final preparations before the final construction:

After construction:

What I need to do next:

1.Create a nice web UI and overcome the problem that browsers don’t except AJAX from another domain(I will make a iframe instead)

2.Put a good rechargeable battery.

3.Try to find a solution to pass parameters from MCU to camera and then to web UI.