[homepage.git] / blog / tags / robot / robot.rss

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<rss version='2.0' xmlns:lj='http://www.livejournal.org/rss/lj/1.0/'>
        <channel>
                <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries tagged robot</title>
                <description>Entries tagged robot</description>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>

        
        <item>
                <title>The space rover coquine, or how I ended up on the dark side of the moon</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_space_rover_coquine__or_how_I_ended_up_on_the_dark_side_of_the_moon.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_space_rover_coquine__or_how_I_ended_up_on_the_dark_side_of_the_moon.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sun, 2 Jun 2019 23:55:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;A while back a college and friend from Debian and the Skolelinux /
Debian Edu project approached me, asking if I knew someone that might
be interested in helping out with a technology project he was running
as a teacher at &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ecolefrancodanoise.dk/&quot;&gt;L&#39;école
franco-danoise&lt;/a&gt; - the Danish-French school and kindergarden.  The
kids were building robots, rovers.  The story behind it is to build a
rover for use
&lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.ecolefrancodanoise.dk/first-week-on-the-dark-side&quot;&gt;on
the dark side of the moon&lt;/a&gt;, and remote control it.  As travel cost
was a bit high for the final destination, and they wanted to test the
concept first, he was looking for volunteers to host a rover for the
kids to control in a foreign country.  I ended up volunteering as a
host, and last week the rover arrived.  It took a while to arrive
after &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.ecolefrancodanoise.dk/model-moms&quot;&gt;it was
built and shipped&lt;/a&gt;, because of customs confusion.  Luckily we were
able fix it quickly with help from my colleges at work.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This is what it looked like when the rover arrived.  Note the cute
eyes looking up on me from the wrapping&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2019-06-02-robot-dark-side-of-moon-esken-med-det-rare-i.jpeg&quot; width=&quot;32%&quot; style=&quot;clear:left&quot;/&gt;
&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2019-06-02-robot-dark-side-of-moon-den-ser-meg.jpeg&quot; width=&quot;32%&quot; style=&quot;clear:left&quot;/&gt;
&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2019-06-02-robot-dark-side-of-moon-en-skrue-loes.jpeg&quot; width=&quot;32%&quot; style=&quot;clear:left&quot;/&gt;

&lt;p style=&quot;text-align:left&quot;&gt;Once the robot arrived, we needed to track
down batteries and figure out how to build custom firmware for it with
the appropriate wifi settings.  I asked a friend if I could get two
18650 batteries from his pile of Tesla batteries (he had then from the
wrack of a crashed Tesla), so now the rover is running on Tesla
batteries.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Building
&lt;a href=&quot;https://gitlab.com/ecolefrancodanoise/arduino-efd/&quot;&gt;the rover
firmware&lt;/a&gt; proved a bit harder, as the code did not work out of the
box with the Arduino IDE package in Debian Buster.  I suspect this is
due to a unsolved
&lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/pull/2703&quot;&gt; license problem
with arduino&lt;/a&gt; blocking Debian from upgrading to the latest version.
In the end we gave up debugging why the IDE failed to find the
required libraries, and ended up using the Arduino Makefile from the
&lt;a href=&quot;https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/arduino-mk&quot;&gt;arduino-mk Debian
package&lt;/a&gt; instead.  Unfortunately the camera library is missing from
the Arduino environment in Debian, so we disabled the camera support
for the first firmware build, to get something up and running.  With
this reduced firmware, the robot could be controlled via the
controller server, driving around and measuring distance using its
internal acoustic sensor.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Next, With some help from my friend in Denmark, which commited the
camera library into the gitlab repository for me to use, we were able
to build a new and more complete version of the firmware, and the
robot is now up and running.  This is what the &quot;commander&quot; web page
look like after taking a measurement and a snapshot:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2019-06-02-robot-dark-side-of-moon-commander.png&quot; width=&quot;40%&quot; border=&quot;1&quot; align=&quot;center&quot;/&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you want to learn more about this project, you can check out the
&lt;a href=&quot;https://hackaday.io/project/164082-the-dark-side-challenge&quot;&gt;The
Dark Side Challenge&lt;/a&gt; Hackaday web pages.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&quot;&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian now got everything you need to program Micro:bit</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_now_got_everything_you_need_to_program_Micro_bit.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_now_got_everything_you_need_to_program_Micro_bit.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Tue, 22 Jan 2019 17:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I am amazed and very pleased to discover that since a few days ago,
everything you need to program the &lt;a href=&quot;https://microbit.org/&quot;&gt;BBC
micro:bit&lt;/a&gt; is available from the Debian archive.  All this is
thanks to the hard work of Nick Morrott and the Debian python
packaging team.  The micro:bit project recommend the mu-editor to
program the microcomputer, as this editor will take care of all the
machinery required to injekt/flash micropython alongside the program
into the micro:bit, as long as the pieces are available.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;There are three main pieces involved.  The first to enter Debian
was
&lt;a href=&quot;https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/python-uflash&quot;&gt;python-uflash&lt;/a&gt;,
which was accepted into the archive 2019-01-12.  The next one was
&lt;a href=&quot;https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/mu-editor&quot;&gt;mu-editor&lt;/a&gt;, which
showed up 2019-01-13.  The final and hardest part to to into the
archive was
&lt;a href=&quot;https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/firmware-microbit-micropython&quot;&gt;firmware-microbit-micropython&lt;/a&gt;,
which needed to get its build system and dependencies into Debian
before it was accepted 2019-01-20.  The last one is already in Debian
Unstable and should enter Debian Testing / Buster in three days.  This
all allow any user of the micro:bit to get going by simply running
&#39;apt install mu-editor&#39; when using Testing or Unstable, and once
Buster is released as stable, all the users of Debian stable will be
catered for.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As a minor final touch, I added rules to
&lt;a href=&quot;https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isenkram&quot;&gt;the isenkram
package&lt;/a&gt; for recognizing micro:bit and recommend the mu-editor
package.  This make sure any user of the isenkram desktop daemon will
get a popup suggesting to install mu-editor then the USB cable from
the micro:bit is inserted for the first time.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;This should make it easier to have fun.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
&lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&quot;&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>My own self balancing Lego Segway</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_own_self_balancing_Lego_Segway.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_own_self_balancing_Lego_Segway.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Fri, 4 Nov 2016 10:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;A while back I received a Gyro sensor for the NXT
&lt;a href=&quot;mindstorms.lego.com&quot;&gt;Mindstorms&lt;/a&gt; controller as a birthday
present.  It had been on my wishlist for a while, because I wanted to
build a Segway like balancing lego robot.  I had already built
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nxtprograms.com/NXT2/segway/&quot;&gt;a simple balancing
robot&lt;/a&gt; with the kids, using the light/color sensor included in the
NXT kit as the balance sensor, but it was not working very well.  It
could balance for a while, but was very sensitive to the light
condition in the room and the reflective properties of the surface and
would fall over after a short while.  I wanted something more robust,
and had
&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hitechnic.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&amp;key=NGY1044&quot;&gt;the
gyro sensor from HiTechnic&lt;/a&gt; I believed would solve it on my
wishlist for some years before it suddenly showed up as a gift from my
loved ones. :)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately I have not had time to sit down and play with it
since then.  But that changed some days ago, when I was searching for
lego segway information and came across a recipe from HiTechnic for
building
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hitechnic.com/blog/gyro-sensor/htway/&quot;&gt;the
HTWay&lt;/a&gt;, a segway like balancing robot.  Build instructions and
&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.hitechnic.com/upload/786-HTWayC.nxc&quot;&gt;source
code&lt;/a&gt; was included, so it was just a question of putting it all
together.  And thanks to the great work of many Debian developers, the
compiler needed to build the source for the NXT is already included in
Debian, so I was read to go in less than an hour.  The resulting robot
do not look very impressive in its simplicity:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;img width=&quot;70%&quot; src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-robot.jpeg&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Because I lack the infrared sensor used to control the robot in the
design from HiTechnic, I had to comment out the last task
(taskControl).  I simply placed /* and */ around it get the program
working without that sensor present.  Now it balances just fine until
the battery status run low:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;video width=&quot;70%&quot; controls=&quot;true&quot;&gt;
   &lt;source src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-balancing.ogv&quot; type=&quot;video/ogg&quot;&gt;
&lt;/video&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Now we would like to teach it how to follow a line and take remote
control instructions using the included Bluetooth receiver in the NXT.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you, like me, love LEGO and want to make sure we find the tools
they need to work with LEGO in Debian and all our derivative
distributions like Ubuntu, check out
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners&quot;&gt;the LEGO designers
project page&lt;/a&gt; and join the Debian LEGO team.  Personally I own a
RCX and NXT controller (no EV3), and would like to make sure the
Debian tools needed to program the systems I own work as they
should.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>All drones should be radio marked with what they do and who they belong to</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/All_drones_should_be_radio_marked_with_what_they_do_and_who_they_belong_to.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/All_drones_should_be_radio_marked_with_what_they_do_and_who_they_belong_to.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Thu, 21 Nov 2013 15:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Drones, flying robots, are getting more and more popular.  The most
know ones are the killer drones used by some government to murder
people they do not like without giving them the chance of a fair
trial, but the technology have many good uses too, from mapping and
forest maintenance to photography and search and rescue.  I am sure it
is just a question of time before &quot;bad drones&quot; are in the hands of
private enterprises and not only state criminals but petty criminals
too.  The drone technology is very useful and very dangerous.  To have
some control over the use of drones, I agree with Daniel Suarez in his
TED talk
&quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://archive.org/details/DanielSuarez_2013G&quot;&gt;The kill
decision shouldn&#39;t belong to a robot&lt;/a&gt;&quot;, where he suggested this
little gem to keep the good while limiting the bad use of drones:&lt;/p&gt;
 
&lt;blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Each robot and drone should have a cryptographically signed
I.D. burned in at the factory that can be used to track its movement
through public spaces. We have license plates on cars, tail numbers on
aircraft. This is no different. And every citizen should be able to
download an app that shows the population of drones and autonomous
vehicles moving through public spaces around them, both right now and
historically. And civic leaders should deploy sensors and civic drones
to detect rogue drones, and instead of sending killer drones of their
own up to shoot them down, they should notify humans to their
presence. And in certain very high-security areas, perhaps civic
drones would snare them and drag them off to a bomb disposal facility.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;But notice, this is more an immune system than a weapons system. It
would allow us to avail ourselves of the use of autonomous vehicles
and drones while still preserving our open, civil society.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;/blockquote&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The key is that &lt;em&gt;every citizen&lt;/em&gt; should be able to read the
radio beacons sent from the drones in the area, to be able to check
both the government and others use of drones.  For such control to be
effective, everyone must be able to do it.  What should such beacon
contain?  At least formal owner, purpose, contact information and GPS
location.  Probably also the origin and target position of the current
flight.  And perhaps some registration number to be able to look up
the drone in a central database tracking their movement.  Robots
should not have privacy.  It is people who need privacy.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Perl library to control the Spykee robot moved to github</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_library_to_control_the_Spykee_robot_moved_to_github.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_library_to_control_the_Spykee_robot_moved_to_github.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 19 Oct 2013 10:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Back in 2010, I created a Perl library to talk to
&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spykee&quot;&gt;the Spykee robot&lt;/a&gt;
(with two belts, wifi, USB and Linux) and made it available from my
web page.  Today I concluded that it should move to a site that is
easier to use to cooperate with others, and moved it to github.  If
you got a Spykee robot, you might want to check out
&lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/libspykee-perl&quot;&gt;the
libspykee-perl github repository&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Debian, the Linux distribution of choice for LEGO designers?</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian__the_Linux_distribution_of_choice_for_LEGO_designers_.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian__the_Linux_distribution_of_choice_for_LEGO_designers_.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 11 May 2013 20:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;P&gt;In January,
&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html&quot;&gt;I
announced a&lt;/a&gt; new &lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego&quot;&gt;IRC
channel #debian-lego&lt;/a&gt;, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
community interested in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lego.com/&quot;&gt;LEGO&lt;/a&gt;, the
marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners&quot;&gt;a wiki page&lt;/a&gt; to have
a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
&lt;a href=&quot;http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego&quot;&gt;hardware::hobby:lego&lt;/a&gt;
tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
LEGO and &lt;a href=&quot;http://mindstorms.lego.com/&quot;&gt;Mindstorms&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;table&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/brickos&quot;&gt;brickos&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;alternative OS for LEGO Mindstorms RCX. Supports development in C/C++&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad&quot;&gt;leocad&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;virtual brick CAD software&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/libnxt&quot;&gt;libnxt&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NX&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd&quot;&gt;lnpd&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc&quot;&gt;nbc&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc&quot;&gt;nqc&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/python-nxt&quot;&gt;python-nxt&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/python-nxt-filer&quot;&gt;python-nxt-filer&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;simple GUI to manage files on a LEGO Mindstorms NXT&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/scratch&quot;&gt;scratch&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;easy to use programming environment for ages 8 and up&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n&quot;&gt;t2n&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;&lt;td&gt;simple command-line tool for Lego NXT&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
&lt;/table&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
available in experimental.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
for LEGO designers.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
Launcher and updated the Debian package
&lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile&quot;&gt;pymissile&lt;/a&gt; to make
sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
also added a &quot;Modaliases&quot; header to test it in the Debian archive and
hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
contribute.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/&quot;&gt;Upstream&lt;/a&gt;
is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
&lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git&quot;&gt;gitweb
view&lt;/a&gt; or use &quot;&lt;tt&gt;git clone
git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git&lt;/tt&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 2 Jan 2013 15:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
&lt;a href=&quot;http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx&quot;&gt;LEGO Mindstorm
NXT&lt;/a&gt;.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
&lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego&quot;&gt;#debian-lego&lt;/a&gt; (server
irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Update 2012-01-03: A
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners&quot;&gt;project page&lt;/a&gt;
including links to Lego related packages is now available.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>First version of a Perl library to control the Spykee robot</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_version_of_a_Perl_library_to_control_the_Spykee_robot.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_version_of_a_Perl_library_to_control_the_Spykee_robot.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 9 Oct 2010 14:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;This summer I got the chance to buy cheap Spykee robots, and since
then I have worked on getting Linux software in place to control them.
The firmware for the robot is available from the producer, and using
that source it was trivial to figure out the protocol specification.
I&#39;ve started on a perl library to control it, and made some demo
programs using this perl library to allow one to control the
robots.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The library is quite functional already, and capable of controlling
the driving, fetching video, uploading MP3s and play them.  There are
a few less important features too.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Since a few weeks ago, I ran out of time to spend on this project,
but I never got around to releasing the current source.  I decided
today that it was time to do something about it, and uploaded the
source to my Debian package store at people.skolelinux.org.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Because it was simpler for me, I made a Debian package and
published the source and deb.  If you got a spykee robot, grab the
source or binary package:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian/packages/lenny/libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.tar.gz&quot;&gt;libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.tar.gz&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian/packages/lenny/libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.dsc&quot;&gt;libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.dsc&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian/packages/lenny/libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1_all.deb&quot;&gt;libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1_all.deb&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;If you are interested in helping out with developing this library,
please let me know.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>My first perl GUI application - controlling a Spykee robot</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_first_perl_GUI_application___controlling_a_Spykee_robot.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_first_perl_GUI_application___controlling_a_Spykee_robot.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 1 Sep 2010 21:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;This evening I made my first Perl GUI application.  The last few
days I have worked on a Perl module for controlling my recently
aquired Spykee robots, and the module is now getting complete enought
that it is possible to use it to control the robot driving at least.
It was now time to figure out how to use it to create some GUI to
allow me to drive the robot around.  I picked PerlQt as I have had
positive experiences with the Qt API before, and spent a few minutes
browsing the web for examples.  Using Qt Designer seemed like a short
cut, so I ended up writing the perl GUI using Qt Designer and
compiling it into a perl program using the puic program from
libqt-perl.  Nothing fancy yet, but it got buttons to connect and
drive around.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The perl module I have written provide a object oriented API for
controlling the robot.  Here is an small example on how to use it:&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
use Spykee;
Spykee::discover(sub {$robot{$_[0]} = $_[1]});
my $host = (keys %robot)[0];
my $spykee = Spykee-&gt;new();
$spykee-&gt;contact($host, &quot;admin&quot;, &quot;admin&quot;);
$spykee-&gt;left();
sleep 2;
$spykee-&gt;right();
sleep 2;
$spykee-&gt;forward();
sleep 2;
$spykee-&gt;back();
sleep 2;
$spykee-&gt;stop();
&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Thanks to the release of the source of the robot firmware, I could
peek into the implementation at the other end to figure out how to
implement the protocol used by the robot.  I&#39;ve implemented several of
the commands the robot understand, but is still missing the camera
support to make it possible to control the robot from remote.  First I
want to implement support for uploading new firmware and configuring
the wireless network, to make it possible to bootstrap a Spykee robot
without the producers Windows and MacOSX software (I only have Linux,
so I had to ask a friend to come over to get the robot testing
going. :).&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Will release the source to the public soon, but need to figure out
where to make it available first.  I will add a link to 
&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/robot/&quot;&gt;the NUUG wiki&lt;/a&gt; for
those that want to check back later to find it.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>Robot, reis deg...</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Robot__reis_deg___.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Robot__reis_deg___.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Sat, 21 Aug 2010 22:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;I dag fikk jeg endelig tittet litt på mine nyinnkjøpte roboter, og
har brukt noen timer til å google etter interessante referanser og
aktuell kildekode for bruk på Linux.  Det mest lovende så langt er
&lt;a href=&quot;http://ispykee.toyz.org/&quot;&gt;ispykee&lt;/a&gt;, som har en
BSD-lisensiert linux-daemon som står som mellomledd mellom roboter på
lokalnettet og en sentral tjeneste der en iPhone kan koble seg opp for
å fjernstyre roboten.  Linux-daemonen implementerer deler av
protokollen som roboten forstår.  Etter å ha knotet litt med å oppnå
kontakt med roboten (den oppretter et eget ad-hoc wifi-nett, så jeg
måtte gå av mitt vanlige nett for å få kontakt), og kommet frem til at
den lytter på IP-port 9000 og 9001, gikk jeg i gang med å finne ut
hvordan jeg kunne snakke med roboten vha. disse portene.  Robotbiten
av protokollen er publisert av produsenten med GPL-lisens, slik at det
er mulig å se hvordan protokollen fungerer.  Det finnes en java-klient
for Android som så ganske snasen ut, men fant ingen kildekode for
denne.  Derimot hadde iphone-løsningen kildekode, så jeg tok
utgangspunkt i den.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Daemonen ville i utgangspunktet forsøke å kontakte den sentrale
tjenesten som iphone-programmet kobler seg til.  Jeg skrev dette om
til i stedet å sette opp en nettverkstjeneste på min lokale maskin,
som jeg kan koble meg opp til med telnet og gi kommandoer til roboten
(act, forward, right, left, etc).  Det involverte i praksis å bytte ut
socket()/connect() med socket()/bind()/listen()/accept() for å gjøre
klienten om til en tjener.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Mens jeg har forsøkt å få roboten til å bevege seg har min samboer
skrudd sammen resten av roboten for å få montert kamera og plastpynten
(armer, plastfiber for lys).  Nå er det hele montert, og roboten er
klar til bruk.  Må få flyttet den over til mitt vanlige trådløsnett
før det blir praktisk, men de bitene av protokollen er ikke
implementert i ispykee-daemonen, så der må jeg enten få tak i en mac
eller en windows-maskin, eller implementere det selv.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Vi var tre som kjøpte slike roboter, og vi har blitt enige om å
samle notater og referanser på &lt;a
href=&quot;http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/robot/&quot;&gt;NUUGs wiki&lt;/a&gt;.  Ta en titt
der hvis du er nysgjerrig.&lt;/p&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        <item>
                <title>2 Spykee-roboter i hus, nå skal det lekes</title>
                <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/2_Spykee_roboter_i_hus__n__skal_det_lekes.html</link>
                <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/2_Spykee_roboter_i_hus__n__skal_det_lekes.html</guid>
                <pubDate>Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
                <description>&lt;p&gt;Jeg kjøpte nettopp to
&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.spykee-robot.com/&quot;&gt;Spykee&lt;/a&gt;-roboter, for test og
leking.  Kjøpte to da det var så billige, og gir meg mulighet til å
eksperimentere uten å være veldig redd for å ødelegge alt ved å bytte
ut firmware og slikt.  Oppdaget at lekebutikken på Bryn senter hadde
en liten stabel på lager som de ikke hadde klart å selge ut etter
fjorårets juleinnkjøp, og var villig til å selge for en femtedel av
vanlig pris.  Jeg, Ronny og Jarle har skaffet oss restbeholdningen, og
det blir morsomt å se hva vi får ut av dette.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Roboten har belter styrt av to motorer, kamera, høytaler, mikrofon
og wifi-tilkobling.  Det hele styrt av en GPL-lisensiert databoks som
jeg mistenker kjører linux.  Firmware-kildekoden ble visst publisert i
mai.  Eneste utfordringen er at kontroller-programvaren kun finnes til
Windows, men det må en kunne jobbe seg rundt når vi har kildekoden til
firmwaren. :)&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spykee&quot;&gt;Wikipedia-oppføring&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.spykeeworld.com/spykee/US/freeSoftware.html&quot;&gt;Nedlasting av firmware-kilden&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/robot&quot;&gt;prosjektwiki hos NUUG&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
</description>
        </item>
        
        </channel>
</rss>