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Project Magellan
The Vision: To create a robot that can be controlled over the internet.
Such robot can be controlled from anywhere in the world with internet connection. The laptop offers not only the wireless capability but also a live video feed via webcam.
Magellan I, featured above, serves as a proof-of-concept. I bought a cheap $5 dollar RC Car body from a pawn shop and installed a Arduino microcontroller along with a netbook. The netbook provided network capability as well as live video feed. The Arduino microcontroller converted instructions from the netbook to simple ON (5v) and OFF (0V) signals. Finally, onboard electronics from the RC car converted on/off signals to the motors. served as a network interface Magellan I roamed the floors of my house. The robot has several significant flaws that will be fixed in the next version
1. The motors did not have enough torque. The robot would be unable to clear the tiniest obstacle on the ground.
2. Live video feed was slow. Took several seconds before update.
3. Normal RC Car steering ability (4 wheels, front wheels turn left/right) unable to navigate tight corners. Requires a large turning radius
Magellan II will feature high torque motors from cordless drills. It will also include a 3 wheel system with independent motor control between the right and left wheel. This will eliminate the turning radius. The wheels will enlarge from 3 inches to 6 inches in diameter to clear obstacles.
Goal:
1. To traverse the sidewalks of Boston. Experiment with the helpfulness of strangers. I want to have the robot sit beside a door with “Will you open the door for me please” flashing on the LCD screen and observe if people will help the robot. I have to be careful that the robot will not be stolen though. Also I have to make sure people will not think the robot as a bomb. With my home-built cantenna capable of .5 mile range, the robot will always be in wireless internet zone.
2. Potential viability as a virtual house tour interface. For perspective home buyers wishing to view a house, a live view can supplement pictures on a website.
Interested? Email us and we can create a step by step guide!
Hello,
I found your magellan project to be very interesting. Im highly considering making one of my own but i must ask, how exactly are you controlling this device. I understand what the Arduino Microcontroller does but how are you controlling it to move around? Are you just programing it to do certain moves using the netbook? or are you able to control it from another computer?
Well project icarus was a complete sucsess so why cant this? i say its gonna work.just a cool idea, try a backup plan incase you get board:a dancing robot that does a certain dance to music if implanted to robot & program dance moves to it from i dunno MICHEAL JACKSON!!!!!
you are very goog
I saw your news in my city’s newspaper.And I am proud because you are Chinese!
You are so cool and creztive!^_^
I have been planning a similar device. It is to be used in museums as a way to view exhibitions with out the need to be present. I also thought of power drills with good batteries. Here in Finland we have a well covered 3g network for mobile phones. This could be used to control the bot outside of wifi areas. Video feeds can also be send from mobile devices. Typically there is a 4-9 second lag. http://www.bambuser.com is a free to use mobile videofeed channel. I am thinking about using a internet tablet with 3g capabilities as the control unit. If the Nokias n900 maemo 5 | debian gnu/linux can be connected to a arduino board that is a solution to think about. I´ll start testing it during spring ’10.
I think this is an intersting idea, however fail to see how it is art. Art is, by it’s very nature hard to define but somehow, when I see this, I do not think ‘art’. It is more of an experiment, a project. Very cool, but just not art.
Anywhere there is creativity, there is art!
Interesting concept!
You seem to have principally the same delay problems found with remote controlled vehicles on the moon or on Mars.
One solution is to make the vehicle move slower, so that the driver can react on new obstacles.
To make it move slower you add another gearbox to shift it down further, which will also provide more torque to the wheels and fix that problem.
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check out the site http://www.letsmakerobots.com. they have alot of web controlled bots. cool idea
yes i will
what can i do to help out
okay can you tell me how i can help yuo out