Controlling your car over WiFi is good, but mounting a webcam on it so you can actually see where you’re going is even better. [Michael] goes over how he made his wifi car with some great videos in the post about it.
The car used is a seemingly standard RC unit, which came with a speed controller that was recycled for network use. [Michael] removed the standard radio, but having this controller available kept him from having to engineer an H-bridge circuit. The radio was then replaced with a WiFi module from Sparkfun.
There were a few problems with the IP camera to begin with, as the lag was originally unbearable. After some tricks that would qualify as a good hack in itself, the camera was eventually able to perform on an acceptable level and output data to the FLTK app he used to control everything. Check out one of his videos below of this car in action.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5ctIrHmqE8?rel=0%5D
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H58xGySylSY?rel=0%5D
If that wasn’t enough RC fun for you, check out how to control your tiny RC car with a computer.
Well, this brings me to the idea that there are probably some WiFi cameras that run Linux and do have some GPIO pins available…
Indeed the TrendNet web camera used does run Linux and has WiFi. TrendNet has the source on their website. There is a serial port on the board too.
That’s a nice build. But what I want to see is a ‘Hexicopter’ following the ‘RC Car’ providing a Third Person View, like in a video game!.
how about a copter providing Third Person View to a Moose?
http://youtu.be/t6mupfi21Ys
I found this MUCH more intriguing than the car…
a) WANT one of those!
b) Want a translation of whatever they were saying… it sounded hilarious.
Re: the car, you almost need two more cams, aimed right and left to give you some idea of what you’re passing… you can’t tell where to turn at low speed, because you can’t see what you’ve cleared.
I really want to be able to stalk meese… that was fantastic.
Just when I was getting ready to submit my project :P Oh well, I’ll post a full writeup in the forums after work today. Still working on an autonomous mode with OpenCV for my project, and an android remote app.
I’m using a pogoplug pro (with 802.11n), silabs 8051f342 toolstick, seeedstudio motor shield, logitech usb webcam, stock motors (for now), two 7.2V nicd packs, and a ton of leds. Software wise I’m running ArchLinuxArm with mjpg-streamer and a custom OSC server using liblo with libusb talking to the toolstick which controls the motors and lights.
Until I get around to writing my own android app I’m using OSCpad.
Most of the hardware was bought on clearance after christmas, except for the toolstick and pogoplug that are survivors from past projects now decommissioned.
Still waiting for forum account approval… so here is a link to the photos I’ve taken of my build so far: http://picasaweb.google.com/106225174053075645907/PogoRovo
Wider angle lens would have helped a bunch.
Damn! Exactly the same project I’m working on, it’s great fun though and I have almost no hardware experience.. taken a different route to this but its a very slick looking machine :)
This is exactly the type of project I’d love to work on, although I am in the same boat as Dave when it comes to lacking the hardware experience.
That is an awesome video. Love RC’s Here are some tiny rc cars I found great fun for my kids. http://bit.ly/1FOt4gz