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Roomba + Tablet PC = ?

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the because-you-can dept.

ptorrone writes "Using "off the shelf parts" I have constructed another pretty good mobile robot for my home. A Tablet PC is the brain and the Roomba robot vac is the locomotion. I'm currently working on sending the IR commands from the pc to the Roomba and having the robot "do a tour" and post photos / video automatically to the "roblog" (my robot photo blog). So yah, the Tablet PC sucks ;-]"

9 of 116 comments (clear)

  1. I have been thinking about doing something similar by dj28 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Also, here is a list of other home-built robot projects on the web. They are interesting, however many of them are not as complex as this person's robot.

    Some interesting projects include: OmniPede and TuteBot.

  2. Linux On TabletPCs by wehe · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hey, just in case you are looking for Linux on TabletPCs to get your robot running with a free OS.

  3. Re:Spare parts? by JVert · · Score: 2, Informative

    The HP TC1000's can be found for around 1,000. Tigerdirect had them refurbished, ebay has them pretty consistantly.

  4. A faster way... by peterprior · · Score: 3, Informative

    Thinkgeek sell a motorised platform you can attach a laptop to called the ER1 Personal Robot System.
    See more details here

  5. Reading this on a tablet right now by Coulson · · Score: 2, Informative

    Turns out, I can jump higher now than I could when I first bought my TabletPC -- but for entirely unrelated reasons. However, it has been an excellent organizational tool. OneNote lets you mark lines on various documents as TODO, then you can work off of your one auto-conglomerated TODO list. For that alone I appreciate it.

  6. As someone who actually has a Roomba ... by phoxix · · Score: 3, Informative

    ..... I can say it sucks

    We have on in the office, to collect all the random bits of paper and whatnot thats on the carpet. We thought it would be a great idea too, but it really isn't.

    The problem with the Roomba is that the "dirt compartment" is soooo small. So when you do get around to sucking things up, in little to no time is it full. Additionally because there is no warning, it can go on for a while, just collection, and disposing dirt elsewhere. After a while the garbage on the carpet is worse than what it started out as. (Mind you we're pretty much you standard office)

    Great idea, but bad product design

    Sunny Dubey

    1. Re:As someone who actually has a Roomba ... by koreth · · Score: 4, Informative

      I have a Roomba too and I've noticed the same thing -- but only when I go a while between cleanings. If I use it every couple of days, after a week or so it gets rid of enough accumulated dirt that subsequent runs don't fill up the compartment any more. If for whatever reason you can't use it that frequently, then yeah, it's probably not the right vacuum for you. I fire it up when I leave for the day, so it's no big deal to use it nearly daily.

  7. You can do it cheaper by Heathkit · · Score: 5, Informative

    A friend and I did the exact same thing a while ago, but using a hacked virgin webplayer. It's an internet appliance you can get for about $50 off of eBay. We just ran it off of NiMH batteries and woila, instant robot.

    The details are here. We wrote up all of our notes, including the pinout of the roomba board in case anyone else wants to do this.

  8. Re:cost by JCMay · · Score: 2, Informative
    As a happy Roomba owner (had mine over a year now), I will rebut.

    • No, the Roomba doesn't have a loud buzzer to warn people of its presence. Why? It's freakin' LOUD! If you don't here the Roomba running, you wouldn't hear the buzzer!
    • Does the "real" Roomba(TM) carefully trace around furniture legs.(sic) Sure it does, provided they're large enough. I've got a four footed pedistal table in the dining room. It goes under there and around its feet just fine.
    • Does it "remember" to go around the couch. NO, it just bounces around, util it is about outta juice, and then homes in on the power. No, that's not right, either. While it doesn't have an internal map of its environs, it's only $200. Yes, its motions look random, but it really has at least three different patterns: spiral, edge following, straight line until an obstacle is met. It has three different room size settings, which really just adjust a timer. Larger rooms get more time on the clock. Yes, it can run out of power, but no, it won't look for the charger. It just blinks a red LED and chimes a four-note tune that my wife and I have taken to mean, "I'm so tired!"
    • It doesn't suck well with its tiny little impeller, but it has something a dustbuster doens't: sweeping roller brooms. The Roomba uses suction to pick up dander and dust, but larger items like coins, sand, furballs, etc., get picked up with the rubber flapper/brush roller combination. Quite effective on our wood floors.


    • By the way, what kind of behaviors do you want? Its brain is a Microchip PIC microcontroller with something like 256 bytes of memory. Whoopee!