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Google, Intel, Microsoft Fund Robot Recipes

Posted by samzenpus on from the cook-until-sentient dept.

Dotnaught writes "Google, Intel, and Microsoft are funding what may become a robot invasion. Money from the three tech companies has enabled researchers at Carnegie Mellon University to create a new series of Internet-connected robots that almost anyone can build using off-the-shelf parts. These "recipes" describe how to build a robot that connects to the Internet using common parts and a $349 Qwerk controller from Charmed Labs."

3 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Hows this for $350 - And it plays video games too! by jdogalt · · Score: 5, Informative

    $129 - Nintendo DS
    $54 - Supercard-Lite-MicroSD
    $15 - 1GB microSD
    $49 - DSerial2
    $99 - RoboDS
    ---
    $350

    Combine with the open source full linux wifi environment, and I don't know why you'd want to spend $350 on that controller (I'm lazy and haven't even read the specs on the thing, but seriously, I can't imagine there is anything the roboDS can't do that it could)

    http://www.natrium42.com/shop/robods.php

    -dmc/jdog

  2. Re:Don't worry!! by gripen40k · · Score: 5, Funny

    Or the Norton Antivirus way:

    Your house will be trashed now.
    | OK |

    --
    Har?
  3. Bring Robotics to the Masses by parker · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I contributed to TeRK while working on my MS at CMU.

    The idea is to provide as simple of an interface to programming the robot as possible. You can write your own stuff directly on the hardware if you like (it's got a serial connection so it's easy to connect to). Or, you can take advantage of the layers of code and write something which runs on your PC... but still has access to things like values from the analog inputs and moving the motors -- all via 802.11. The project uses a lot of open source and the source code for all of the components is available. There is a lot of framework code written in C that runs on the Qwerk board itself, and it uses ICE to connect from the board to either a relay server or your PC. Then, for the people who don't like to program at all (or are just starting out), there is a lot of software, including a basic emulator of the board, mostly written in Java, that they can just run on Windows, Mac OS, or Linux.

    During development, we took our PC app and a couple of Qwerks to a group of robotics hobbyists and they were floored by the kind of capability you can get for free with the Qwerk and all of the software that's already been written. Most of them wanted to find a way to incorporate the board into their own projects.

    Anyway, the goal of the project is to have a wide appeal. I hope it can get a lot more people excited about what they can do, and all at a very low cost compared to other kits.

    --
    // No comment