Alternate Control Systems

[BBray_T1296]

Hey guys. I was wondering if there exists a pre-made communication system that suits my ignorant needs.

My goal is to create my own tele-presence vehicle, where I, from anywhere on a network, can control the robot while it is within a building's wifi range. I would have a wifi bridge on board the robot to capture that wifi signal for control, as well as for streaming camera footage back to my "base".

I am a hardware guy, and my programming is limited to AP Computer Science Java, and programming a vex robot in C++ (text based). I have no knowledge of, and little desire to learn, 'complex' programming I would need to use a Arduino/Raspberry Pi/etc for this application. I want to be able to figure out all the hardware stuff, the basic programming I will need to control the system, and have everything else already work.

I already own a VEX PIC v0.5 radio-based control system. If there was a "simple" way to link the remote to the micro-controller via ethernet (take the RJ11 out of the remote, go into a computer, transmit to another computer, then output RJ11 into the PIC) , that would by my most preferred solution. My second choice is to buy a Cortex or ARM "wifi" (not the useful kind) vex micro-controllers (I really like VEX. I can already do VEX.).

I could also envision remote-desktoping to a laptop on board the robot, which has the ability to control the robot somehow. That program on the laptop on the robot would be the part I need in this system.

I would be perfectly happy with using a cRIO, but from what I have seen looking over our programmer's shoulders, it is not something I want to have to deal with.

Thanks,
Brian Bray

[BBray_T1296]

I honestly do not care if it is a gimmicky solution.

I want to be able to spend 95% of my time on hardware, and the other 5% on simple programming.

I want to have to spend nearly <1% of my time on this aspect of the robot, even if it means taking a few extra minutes each time I want to run the thing.

[BBray_T1296]

After lurking on AndyMark, the Sasquatch may be the compromise I am looking for. I still do not know how I would interface the controller with a laptop, though.

[Domenic Rodriguez]

I've not had an opportunity to use the RobotOpen or Sasquatch controllers, but I agree they do look interesting. As you probably saw, the Sasquatch is based on Arduino, and as such is programmed from the Arduino IDE. Just wanted to point this out since you mentioned an objection to Arduino/Raspberry Pi in your original post. It looks like they provide a library with the hardware that provides similar functionality to WPILib, which should make things easier code-wise.

Could you clarify what you mean by interfacing the controller with a laptop? If you mean to send joystick data and receive feedback from the robot, RobotOpen/Sasquatch has a driver station available as a Google Chrome app. You will probably be on your own for camera support, though...

[mman1506]

I've used the Sasquatch and I think it would suit your needs well. The Arduino language is well documented and the library includes a bunch of examples. I've never used the vex controller but i would bet that it is easier than C++ on the vex. You shouldn't have a problem using the RobotOpen DS and viewing the IP cam stream at the same time.