Small Embedded Computer with 802.11 for RC Car?

Milo_Mindbender asks: "For some time now I've been wanting to build an RC car with an on-board computer and an 802.11 link back to the PC in my office for telepresence experiments (and just plain fun). As I'm planning on doing this on my own dime, the big problem has been finding a reasonablly cheap and low power embedded system board with 802.11 and the right 'ins' and 'outs' to handle controling the motors (a parallel port at minimum)." Many seriously cool devices could come from an embedded 802.11 system, and I'm sure computer controlled RC cars are just the beginning. Has the Embedded Computing camp hopped on the wireless networking bandwagon? If not, what's the delay?

"I'm interested in doing two versions of the gadget, one using a system with a less powerful CPU that could do simple preprogramed moves and a second one that would have a CPU with enough power to do low-res video and two-way audio. I figure it would be a riot to remote drive one of these things anyplace in the office complex that has 802.11, stick a high-gain antenna on it and you could probably send it down the elevators and out into the parking lot! Has anyone seen an embedded system with 802.11 of either power level that might fit the bill?"

Comments

pc-104 board with a crusoe

[Splork]

See Ampltd for their Tiny886ULP PC-104 board with a crusoe processor. Add 802.11 to that using CompactFlash or USB and you've got a low wattage high performance x86 system.

(other pc-104 boards with much slower cpus are available for a bit less money)

Telepresence robot

[Omega Hacker]

I built one while working at OGI a few years ago. I've got a copy of the pages on my current server, at http://www.temple-baptist.com/~omega/ogimabot2/, with a little info on it. I should see if the prof. I was working with still has the slides to convert to HTML...

They're supposedly going to be building a new one soon, and so my research into a next-gen robot may be put to use. I was looking very closely at the Cell Computing parts (http://www.cellcomputing.com/), which aren't cheap ($1k-$1.5k depending), but are the right size and somewhat designed for that kind of stuff. Put that in (instead of on top of, like the current bot) the car (thinking of using a monster-truck chassis) and you can do pretty good. Email me if you have other questions, because I spent a huge amount of time on this project and its related issues.... nospam_omega@temple-nospambaptist. com

Just to clarify

[Milo_Mindbender]

The main reason we wanted to go with an 802.11 wireless ethernet was because it would have enough speed to send back video, and it would work anywhere in our offices that has the net setup. And by high-gain antenna, I just ment a high-gain omindirectional one...the antennas on most wireless cards are far from optimal.

We did try the thing with X10-wireless cam which is what got us started on this whole thing. It was TONS of fun but the problem was the X10 cam gets a pretty poor quality picture when the car is moving and bouncing around.