General facts about OVR

21.04.08

Filed Under: Info

Welcome on Open Video Robot development blog.

The Open Video Robot is a different view over the classic idea of a mini-vehicle with one or more
video cameras on it. This device is basically built from a wireless router (Asus WL500G), on which
special devices are connected in order to perform different tasks: a webcam for getting the images,
and some electric motors to make the device move. Everything is kept as simple as possible, in
order to make the device easier to understand, maintain and use.

So that is different about this device? The price (4-5 times lower than usual moving remote control robots), and the architecture, which built on a standard wireless router, is as open as possible to any type of modification.

Open Video Robot - (hardware) overview

06.06.08

Parts list:

Asus WL-500GP router
Atmel Atmega48 microcontrolle
3x FAN 8082 electric motor drivers
LM2940T voltage regulator
1x SG-5010 servos
3x AS-170 servos (Don’t buy them, they more or less self distruct if the arm somehow gets stuck!)
4x Sanyo 2500mAh NiMh rechargeable batteries
Phillips SPC200NC webcam
Tamiya Track and Wheel set
2x Tamiya Double gearbox
5x white LEDs
Different […]

Source code: Windows Controller

27.05.08

I wrote the Windows controller, just because the visitors of our stands like better windows than *nix. Since the application’s purpose was just to send plain text over tcp, I used a high leve, basic-like scripting language, AutoIt V3.
First, I should mention some commands the robot knows about:

forward,right,left,back,stop - for movement
ledon,ledoff - for light control
numbers […]

Infomatrix 2008 - Gold medal

26.05.08

We continued with the robot development after the Jury’s special award in Dreamline International Design Olympiad, and tried to go to other contests. We qualified also to Busef, in Adana,Turkey, but didn’t manage to go, since it was Easter holiday in Romania. But we succeded to qualify to Infomatrix (in Bucharest, Romania), and more than […]

Open Video Robot