Can Robomatic......?

[Hextor]

I admittedly didn't look to deep and the demo restricted some features so I'll just ask here. Can Robomatic run custom programs? here is what I'm doing. I'm building a robot that will for now just wonder about my house. I want to add a bit of a personality to this robot. and I'm looking for a "chat bot" or similar program to do this. I would like the robot to be interactive, and responsive to commands. as in "Move forward" and the bot moves forward. or say what is the temperature and it reads the data and tells the temp. I'm not asking if your program can connect to a robot and control it, I can make command line programs that control the robot I just want robomatic to control which program get ran and when. is there a way to do this? I would basically write a program called forward.exe I would just need a way... if there isn't one to tell Roboamatic how to handle that command. ideas for the future.... if you supported serial port communication you could have robomatic talk directly to the microprocessor handling the robot locomotion. I'm using the BasicStamp from parallax

Let me know

Thanks

Dave

p.s. my robot will have an on board computer running windows XP

[Ehab]

Hello,

RoboMatic X1 can run custom programs by using RoboMatic Explorer (not available in the DEMO) but you will have to ask him first. Your idea is interesting and yes it's possible to let RoboMatic run a program in a specific situations but in the current version it's not possible unless you ask him.

So if forward.exe supposed to make your robot move forward and you need to execute this file using RoboMatic then that will be so great. But how can you control a robot? is that supposed to be hardware drivers or what?

RoboMatic is done in .Net, so if it's possible to do that in the .Net environment then that will easy the job so much.

Thanks,
Ehab

[Hextor]

The robot I have in mind and I am currently working on is controlled by a BasicStamp microprocessor. the microprocessor handles all of the sensor inputs and motor control. it can even control the behavior of the robot. it's great for what I just mentioned but it cannot process things like voice or video. But it can communicate via a Serial port to a computer so what I want to do is set up the microprocessor to have a few routines for things like move forward, backward, roam, follow, anything really. and then have it in a continuous loop waiting for a command. I would like to have RoboMatic X1 issue those commands. To communicate with the BasicStamp I would write a VBdos program to send the appropriate command via the serial port to the Stamp. so in short X1 listens for a command, it hears "go forward" and runs forward.exe which sends a code via the serial port to the Basicstamp, then runs the routine FORWARD.
If X1 supported direct communication through the com port that would make the whole system run smother, but I will take what I can get. Also if the communication were bidirectional it will greatly enhance things. for example.. you tell x1 "go forward" and the robot senses something in front of it and tells X1. X1 then reports back verbally "I can't something is in the way" this would really add a lot of potential for building robots. allowing a robot to have a personality rather than just a set of fixed commands. Let me know what you think
Why VBDOS especially on a windows based computer... it's what I know...I would do the same thing in .net if I was more familiar with the language.

Thanks

Dave

[Ehab]

Hello Hextor,

Thanks really for this interesting subject!, I spent hours to look around this and i came up with very helpful links, and yes BasicStamp supports C# and VB.net which will easy our job.

Here is some links:
http://geocities.com/SiliconValley/Orch ... 3/vb5.html
Discussions in Robotics Studio
http://www.parallax.com/html_pages/prod ... studio.asp

I was asking for .Net support because it will be more flexible to control the robot using RoboMatic X1 EXE without needing external EXEs.

In RoboMatic X1, you can order him to open cd/close cd, shutdown, restart, hibernate and many other operations. So I think I can make a controlled robot by adding another operations.

Also I could put an option for Manual or Automatic robot control. Automatic control can be embedded in RoboMatic AI engine (AI Base control).

Please see this link to learn more about how RoboMatic X1 works:
http://forum.infradrive.com/viewtopic.php?t=19

I really would be glad to develop something like that.

[Hextor]

I'll be gettig a registered copy when I get home so I can get a better feel of how everything works. I would love to help you out anyway possible.

I knew about Microsoft Robot Studio, but I wanted to have more of an AI than MSRS could provide. it has a pretty steep learning curve also. I think it would add whole new level to robotics to be able to ask it questions about anything and get a response. not just an unknown command to every think not hardwired in.

If you added serial port and/or blue tooth communication to X1 that would be great.
I don't think the the communication needs to be complex. I'm not quite sure how you would program the communication so a process could be learned. maybe a dialog like?
GO FORWARD
WHY DON'T YOU ANSWER THIS DIFFICULT QUESTION, I'D LIKE TO HEAR THE ANSWER FROM YOU. WHAT CODE WOULD I SEND TO THE COM PORT TO PREFORM THAT ACTION
FORWARD
BEFORE SAVING THAT IN MY MIND, IS THAT THE CORRECT ACTION TO PREFORM?
YES

This would allow for unlimited actions to be sent to the Basicstamp. Beyond that it would
be nice to add a variable to the command so that you could say "go forward 5 feet" and X1 would send FORWARD,5 or "turn right 90 degrees" would send RTURN,90 This would allow you to really customize how you control a robot in just minutes.

Let me know how I can help

Dave

[Ehab]

Hello Dave,

I really appreciate your cooperation and what you need is really interesting issue but i need to test it on a robot so I can program the operations correctly on RoboMatic X1. If you are serious about your request, you can send me a robot to start programming operation on it, in return you will get a registered copy of RoboMatic X1 which could control robots.

In case that i failed in doing this task, then i will pay all the expenses you incurred.

All i need now from you is to tell me what that will cost you and if there is good source for dealing with robots i could take it as a reference while programming, it will be so great.

for further communication, you can e-mail me at: support@infradrive.com

Best regards and have a nice day,
Ehab