TelepresenceRobot
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Creator: |
Overview
After watching the video for the [Double Robotics] telepresence robot I decided it would be a neat thing to have around the shop for anyone to be able to visit from anywhere in the world right from their web browser. This robot could be accessed from its own special URL served up right from a Raspberry Pi inside it. Then it would require a username and password to log in to be able to remote control it. Instead of using an iPad for the camera and software we could just use a regular USB webcam. Then instead of worrying about making a segway style self balancing platform we could just use an R/C tank toy that can do many of the same motions like forward, backward, and pivot in place. We could make it an option on the controller web site to have the tank style controls or regular forward, backward, and turn in place controls to simplify it.
The user should be able to use any Mac or PC or even an Android or iOS device to use the robot remotely. They will need to have a web cam / facetime style camera and microphone set up so the people looking at the screen on the robot will be able to see the remote user's face. This is what makes it seem like they are in the room like the robot is acting as their body double.
I am planning to use one of the Roomba vacuum robots as the base, then take the screen off of an old portable DVD player and hack that into the composite video out of the Raspberry Pi. I bought a USB webcam with built in microphone from the Huntsville Hamfest after I looked it up to make sure it was on the "compatible hardware" list for the Pi. It's a Logitech C210 and I got it brand new for $15 from one of the vendors there. So it will be roomba with a PVC pipe or similar stalk about 4 feet up where I'll hang the screen and webcam. Then I'll have to write some sort of web app that you can log in and it will set up a two way audio/video feed and show drive controls on the side. I'll write up the javascript to listen for keyboard keys so that you can drive the bot around with WASD keys. The whole thing should run fine from a 12V battery similar to what you might find on a kid's power wheels car. A future improvement would be for pan/tilt camera controls and telescoping stalk to raise and lower the camera/screen to be face to face with someone sitting down vs. standing up.
Here's someone else's project page where they drove a roomba with a raspberry pi:
http://cfpm.org/~peter/connectingItUp.html
Here's what the Double robot from Double Robotics looks like:
Here's the idea I came up with and drew with Google Sketchup:
