Show HN: Live control a robot running around my house

Who put a talking robot in a park full of kids and gave control of it to the Internet???

haha, that was I, hey what could possibly go wrong?

One robot is in Santa Barbara, California and the other is in La Jolla in San Diego, California at a park somewhere. If you type in the chat box, the robot will say the chat out load.

Crazy. Are you going to write something about how you built it?

Sure, here's a video about how to build one with a Raspberry Pi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI59iFtDspA

Here's a readable summary (also said below):

Raspberry Pi that runs the python program that sends video to the webserver using ffmpeg. Adafruit Motor HAT to connect the motors to the pi. Android phone is strapped to robot that runs a custom android app that receives chats from the website and also says them out loud using the Android API for text-to-speech. Everything sits on top of a 3d printed chassis. Cheap logitech webcam. Web app is a node server, socketio, ec2.

Is your software open source or available, it looks like it's python from the video. I want to buy your kit, but I'd like to build a robot that drives around my house while we are out, with a camera. So I would want to be the only one with access to the camera, turn it on when the alarm goes on. I a dev, I can hack python just fine. The reason I haven't done this myself is all the work to get to the hardware, and basic software.

Guessing the software arch, you encode the video on the robot and then send it to your backend site. Then you have a separate listener on the pi, that just takes single commands from the website. I imagine not running a webserver on the pi makes the response much faster and doesn't run down the battery. So for a private webcam in my house, a kind of alarm system, i need a system there to capture the video stream and act as a remote host that I can access from outside. I don't want to copy your webserver stack, I'd prefer something lighter weight, that I could run as a service on a linux or windows pc.

Hey there, yes the kit will give you a great start on your project. Let me know if you have any trouble with the purchasing system.

http://runmyrobot.com/kit

This code, which runs on the robot (RasPi), is open and available here. You are correct, it receives commands from the server via socket io.

https://github.com/runmyrobot/runmyrobot

As for the server, you can use our site with privacy if you want. The privacy feature is brand new, so you can't see it in the interface yet, but it's there. We just have to turn it on. Or, you can build your own server/webclient if you want. We can provide all information you need for messaging protocol and such that's used to move the robot.

Let me know if you have any questions

Best!

Rick Giuly rgiuly@gmail.com Co-founder RunMyRobot

This reminds me of Burger King's subservientchicken.com, except theirs was prerecorded video. This is way cooler.

And far less creepy looking than the Chicken if I do say so..

Twitch Plays Real Life!

Craziest thing in the world. This is actually real.

I can't donate because paypal.me is not available in my country (I wasn't going to donate much, but maybe others were).

Ah, taking note. Thanks

WOOT? This is amazing! One of the best demos I've seen in my life.

That was amusing. Thanks!

This is awesome. The real time chat too. Damn!

thanks dude! we put a lot of work into it

you seem to be console.logging every move request you register, not sure if you mean to do that or left something in from dev

thanks for the heads up!

You should clean up your apartment!

i'm reminded of 'suspended' from infocom...

any link to details on what parts you use for these bots?

Yes! here's a video that will go over the details: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI59iFtDspA

The main parts are a RaspberryPi, some Adafruit stuff, and a motor from pololu. Also, I put all the parts in a package that you can get here: http://runmyrobot.com/kit

This is exactly what I have been looking for, reasonable hardware that I can put together with a drivable car/robot that I can have fun programming. I will watch your video and probably order your kit. I think my son could really enjoy learning with this kit.

Raspberry Pi that runs the python program that sends video to the webserver using ffmpeg. Adafruit Motor HAT to connect the motors to the pi. Android phone is strapped to robot that runs a custom android app that receives chats from the website and also says them out loud using the Android API for text-to-speech. Everything sits on top of a 3d printed chassis. Cheap logitech webcam. Web app is a node server, socketio, ec2.

What an awesome project. I love that you leveraged android devices. Has everything you need for execution. Well done!!

This robot is live!

this is nice! playing with robots :)

thanks bro! we appreciate the feedback

ROBOT FIGHT!!

i run your leg. lol