[ale] semi [OT] running a robot with linux

[Geoffrey Myers]

Ron Frazier wrote:
> Geoffrey,
> 
> I know what you mean.  An iphone would be an intriguing device.  The
> problem I have with that is that Apple locks down everything you can do
> with it and even the development tools you can use.  They even sued a
> company recently for making an after market ssd drive that was better
> than Apple's for the Mac.  They're the total opposite of open source.
> Other than that, the iphone or itouch are cool devices.  Now, if you
> were to jailbreak it ... but then they'd probably sue you.

There are active jailbreaks of the iPhone as we speak, and that is the 
way I would go with this one, as I need complete control of the device. 
  Plus, I'm not planning on using it as a phone, thus I couldn't use it 
at all with the existing OS.

> 
> I don't understand the dichotomy that exists in the controller world.
> As you and I alluded to, an iphone or similar device has a nice screen,
> nice touch interface, relatively powerful general purpose cpu,
> relatively lots of storage, camera, microphone, speakers, usb, wireless
> networking, cellular networking, etc.
> 
> A microcontroller generally is a much less powerful cpu, with much less
> storage, no screen, no built in user interface, and almost none of the
> features listed above.  The microcontroller makers are now raving on
> about how their chips have usb (at 12Mbps I might add) and ethernet (at
> 10Mbps) interfaces!  That train left the station 10 years ago.  That
> doesn't impress me.
> 
> These two separate worlds seem to never meet, but I think they should be
> married.  I was seriously considering building a touch screen home
> automation device.  I wanted to have a small screen in each room, so you
> could monitor the front door, check the heating and air, check the
> weather, pipe video from room to room, etc.  I was looking at using a 32
> bit PIC chip.  Then, I have to add a screen, a touch panel, ethernet,
> usb, storage, wifi, audio in/out, etc. etc.  I was looking at $500 each
> for the cost of parts (although not in wholesale quantity).  I'm
> thinking I'd do better taking a 7" android tablet from China and
> modifying or augmenting that.
> 
> What the controller chips do have on their side is what we used to call
> in the flight simulator world, linkage.  They have digital I/O, analog
> I/O, pulse width modulation, timers, interrupts, controller area
> networks, etc.  They are very good at controlling things, as you might
> expect.  They are not very good at interfacing with users, general
> purpose computing, storing data, and networking.
> 
> I think it's time for a shotgun wedding!
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Ron
> 
> On Fri, 2011-01-21 at 12:41 -0500, Geoffrey Myers wrote:
>> Ron Frazier wrote:
>>> One of my interests, other than Linux, is robotics (actual moving
>>> machines, not computer bots).  I sometimes visit the Atlanta Hobby Robot
>>> Club ( http://botlanta.org/ ).  My ultimate goal is to build a moving
>>> robot which is run with a Linux based platform for a brain, and probably
>>> programmed in C++, which I'm starting to learn.  I think it would be
>>> really cool to run a robot using an Android phone or tablet, or possibly
>>> one of those little embedded computers.  However, I think the embedded
>>> computer market is behind because a phone or tablet has much more
>>> computer power, memory, built in screen, wireless, network interface,
>>> usb, etc.  I specifically want to use C++, rather than C, where
>>> functions exist to do a task in both languages.  Lots of embedded
>>> computers can be programmed in C, but not C++.  I also want the robot to
>>> be able to do more complex tasks than just following a line, etc.
>>> That's why I'm leaning toward a more sophisticated controller.  I'd
>>> appreciate any pointers toward resources for this type of project.
>> I've got an old 1st generation iphone I'd like to use for such a 
>> purpose.  Think about it, it's got a microphone, speakers, camera. 
>> Everything you need.
>>
>>> Sincerely,
>>>
>>> Ron
>>>
>>
> 


-- 
Until later, Geoffrey

"I predict future happiness for America if they can prevent
the government from wasting the labors of the people under
the pretense of taking care of them."
- Thomas Jefferson