Roomba + Wii remote + Perl = Awesome

Anonymous Wii Lov'n Coward writes "Check out the WiiRoomba, a mashup using a Wii remote, a perl script, and the Darwiin Remote software. While a little sluggish to respond, the Roomba is entirely controlled by the Wii remote accelerometers." All of the source code to do it yourself is available at the site linked, along with a youtube video of how it works.

Comments

Cool hack, but

[Oddster]

Isn't the point of the Roomba that it doesn't need control?

Although I suppose it would be really useful if you added a servo arm, and could use the contraption to get yourself a beer without leaving your chair.

Re:Why Perl?

[FooAtWFU]

Hey, look at the code. The important bits seem to be like

printf $roomba "\x89%c%c%c%c", $vh,$vl,$rh,$rl;

Elsewhere, they seem to be communicating with another application through a named pipe. Text processing and the UNIX philosophy: Perl at its finest.

Re:Why Perl?

[Nasarius]

Out of curiosity, why use a language like Perl to do something dynamic like this? I'm no code jockey, but I always thought that Perl was meant for run-it-once type applications that handle things like text processing and database searching.

The question is valid, but the nonsensical rambling that follows detracts from it. So I'll just say that modern scripting languages like Perl, Python, or Ruby can do just about anything but systems programming. In fact, they are perfect for doing what the summary seems to describe: taking the output from one program, parsing it, and sending instructions to another program.

Re:iRobot could have made Roomba remote controlled

[mccalli]

... but they didn't. Because the whole point of the Roomba is that you don't need to control it.

No and yes, in that order. My Roomba certainly came with a remote control that can steer the device, but I've never found a need to use it. However, I still appreciate this hack for what it is - a spot of fun done just because you can.

Cheers,
Ian

"mashup"

[sinserve]

What is this trendy-word shit? MASHUP? Who the fuck came up with this word? In multimedia we already had "remixing" and "sampling".

Hardware and software can not "mashup", they're "coupled" or "integrated" in manager-speak, but in honest everyday speak hardware is "driven" or "controlled" or "interfaced" with software.

It could have been "controling roomba with wii remote". Perl would never show up in the headline because software drivers are no often given banner credit. They're expected to work.

How programable is the Roomba?

[RalphBNumbers]

Taking this hack a step farther:

Since Roombas can be made to connect to computers via bluetooth adapters, it stands to reason that if they are sufficiently programable, they could be made to respond directly to the Wiimote via bluetooth, without a Mac playing middleman. This might even eliminate a lot of the the lag the story mentions.