Advice on hardware hacking

BlackDragon

BlackDragon

BlackDragon

Soldato
Joined
9 Jun 2006
Posts
2,642
Hi all,

I'm looking to get into building robots and generally hacking around with hardware. I'm not really sure where to begin with this sort of thing and hope that the OCUK forum can provide some advice.

My first project will writing some software to track movement on a camera, and then move a USB missile launcher to face the target. I could try and take a USB missile launcher with built-in webcam, but I'm not sure how I would control hardware with my software. Alternatively I could try to build my own machinery, but I wouldn't know where to start.

Anyone any experience in things like this, and could offer some advice to get me started? Particularly I'm looking for advice in acquiring/building the hardware, so that I can then control it with software written on a computer. The hardware could all be connected to a laptop/desktop to do all the hard processing.

Thanks
 
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That will require a very complex algorithm, motion detection is difficult to nail down. Also keep in mind that I don't think many embedded systems have the capabilities to do this, it will need to be done through a laptop at least.
You can make some awesome awesome stuff with arduino though, many different projects out there for robots and all kind of things.
Why don't you start with something like an arduino powered rc car, they are quite easy to do. Or you could do stuff like nano quadcopters, which are flipping awesome.
 
RomanNose said:
That will require a very complex algorithm, motion detection is difficult to nail down. Also keep in mind that I don't think many embedded systems have the capabilities to do this, it will need to be done through a laptop at least.
You can make some awesome awesome stuff with arduino though, many different projects out there for robots and all kind of things.
Click to expand...

I already have experience in motion detection, as I built something a few years back using a borrowed Lego Mindstorm kit and flashed the firmware so that I could program it using Java. I guess I could buy a Lego mindstorms kit, but they aren't cheap.

It doesn't necessarily have to run completely on the system itself, I don't mind having it all connected to a desktop/laptop to do all the processing.
 
Well then I guess it would be fine, it's not just motion detection it's motion tracking as well. So what you could do is hava java program running taking data from the webcam, then controlling a couple of servos using arduino. Should be fine.
 
Raspberry Pi, should be plenty powerful enough for the job. Although you could start with a laptop and then migrate to the pi once its working.
 
RomanNose said:
Well then I guess it would be fine, it's not just motion detection it's motion tracking as well. So what you could do is hava java program running taking data from the webcam, then controlling a couple of servos using arduino. Should be fine.
Click to expand...


The computer vision side I can handle, as I have quite a lot of experience with it.

That's the hardware set up I was thinking of. I was just not sure what hardware I need, and how I would communicate with the hardware. I will have a look at this Arduino stuff, I have heard of it a few times but never looked into it.

Thanks
 
Try an ardunio. Make your rocket launcher and control is with a couple of buttons or bits taken from an old radio control car.
It should be pretty easy to control. You'll only need 2 servos (rotation + elevation) and probably a solenoid to launch missiles. Arduino is really easy to use for controlling servos.

Once you've got that working, try and interface it with your pc or whatever your motion detection software on.
 
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