pic: Vex + Roomba = Voomba

[Greg Marra]

Originally Posted by Tom Bottiglieri

How are you driving the motors?

If you had a working roomba, this would be a pretty easy way to drive it. Just pass the inputs from the controller through the serial port to the roomba.

If you program the VEX RC right to talk serial to the Roomba, it is just a command to drive the motors at some speed such that the Roomba will drive at some angle. Once you get the serial drivers working on the VEX RC, it is pretty straightforward.

The Roomba even tells you what its sensors are seeing, so you can respond intelligently. And you can even tell it not to override the fall sensors so it doesn't drive down stairs.