Asked — Edited

Introduction Post.

I always like to enter a new forum with an introduction post. I've been lurking since Christmas, picking your brains with creative use of the search function.

I scored a rover for a christmas present (Okay, I bought it for myself the day after, knowing how it worked as a platform) and this past weekend, after a few scattered hours of tinkering, had my two year old driving it around the living room with a Nintendo controller hooked up to his PC.

So, I'm about to pull the trigger on my next home networking project: Remote lunch.

I already have my phone, laptops and work machines able to connect to my home network from anywhere. My new goal is to be able to remotely wake up a robot from work/the road, drive it into the living room and hang out with my son and wife a bit via skype then take it back to a charging station. The main goal is to build a platform that my son can see me build so he understands these are all things he can make too, not just buy...

A little over a decade ago, I did EE and IT professionally, but moved into marketing / business so I could avoid dealing with users. I'm incredibly comfortable with tech, electronics, networking and some programming, but am working to get my chops up so I can get my son up to speed in the amazing world we live in.

So I'm here to ask some silly noob questions, and gradually figure out my build.

Thanks for all the info you guys have already shared with me, I'm excited to play. But given my primary roles as a dad and a boss, I sometimes only get a few hours a week to hack, pardon long response times and ridiculous topic bumps. :)

-Sean


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Synthiam
#2  

Hello hagcel! Nice to meet you. Sounds like that will be a fun project:) I really like how you will be integrating a custom robot into the family. It's really awesome to imagine society is ready to introduce robots as family members - sort of. Having your child recognize you through a robot!

A roomba as ethe base might be an excellent idea for the self charging aspect. It'll also provide enough power to lug a small laptop mounted on top of it. Plus you get the bonus of being able to do house work (Vacuuming )while out of town :D

#3  

I agree a roomba can be a great base and the drive motors can be replaced with the brush motors I believe for a lot more torque. Have a telepresence robot is super cool. I look forward to following along on your project. Here in the forum we love videos and pictures of your build. Always search for the answer to you question first as many have already been asked and answered and this saves you tons of time. ;)