[video] Team 2423 robot controlled via a webpage

[virtuald]

This is a video of Team 2423's (The Kwarqs) robot being controlled via WebDMA, the open source embedded webserver that I created to help us tune our robot. Of course, this isn't exactly tuning, but its a pretty neat demonstration of its capabilities.

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjbSHEmchIQ

WebDMA project page on Google code: http://code.google.com/p/webdma/

[Jetweb]

I wonder what the odds are of this being legal for use during competition next year.

[Adama]

This is very cool!

What was the purpose behind this though?

[virtuald]

WebDMA is a library that I created that allows you to modify variables on the robot using a web browser. Its primarily intended for tuning the robot actually. It can also do data acquisition.

This is just a neat demonstration of that (after all, making the robot move is just modifying variables... ).

[keehun]

At the VERY LEAST, this would be the most amazing way to do console/error output work.

[virtuald]

Originally Posted by keehun

At the VERY LEAST, this would be the most amazing way to do console/error output work.

It does make that stuff much easier.

Theres a *ton* of potential with this because the interface is all done in javascript, so whatever you can do in a normal web page you can do here. What I really want to implement is some data acquisition stuff, but that will require a tiny bit of tweaking. Theres a javascript graphing library that should do the trick for the output however...

I've been considering the idea of supporting a printf-like log facility, but I'm not sure if thats going to happen or not.

[Adama]

Originally Posted by virtuald

WebDMA is a library that I created that allows you to modify variables on the robot using a web browser. Its primarily intended for tuning the robot actually. It can also do data acquisition.

This is just a neat demonstration of that (after all, making the robot move is just modifying variables... ).

So it allows you to see the results of possible code changes in real time before you write the change in? That is very cool and helpful.

[AmoryG]

Originally Posted by Adama

So it allows you to see the results of possible code changes in real time before you write the change in? That is very cool and helpful.

Yep. It allows you to change variables on the fly without having to reprogram the robot. Think of it as an intuitive way of switching driving modes by pressing a button on your controller (like switching between autonomous and teleoperated while practicing) on serious steroids, except that this has pretty bars that you can drag across a computer screen to change the values of certain variables relating to things like speed and direction of the robot.