Microcontrollers alone do not have the power to do what the ez-robot project does. So the concept of ez-robot is to merge the PC and the Microcontroller to harness the power of USB peripherals of your PC. A laptop/pc is always required to control your robot :)

Thanks for your reply.

So your hacked omnibot is always connected to a PC when it's running?

The arduino chip fully runs script without a computer connected? The only time you need a PC then is to transfer the script to the arduino chip?

• Mix3rn

Hello, I read that the EZ Controller have speech syntesis, and recognition.

1. Is it possible to make an AI script that responds with voice when talked to?

2. How advanced is it possible to make an AI? To learn colours, and shapes?

3. And then is it remembered when I cut the power, or will it have to learn all over again? What I mean is to make a savefile where it stores the conversations.

4. And is it possible to attach a microphone and speaker to the Ez controller card to make use of the speech syntesis function without a computer?

Thank you.

• Mix3rn

The arduino is a compiler that builds code to run on an Atmel microcontroller. The EZ-Robot project is a combination of PC and Microcontroller. The EZ-Robot project harnesses the power of your PC by allowing USB peripherals to be merged seamlessly with your robot project. That includes sound cards, cameras and joysticks. What makes the EZ-Robot so powerful is the ability to combine the two platforms.

That's what is so great about the EZ-Robot project. We all dream of having smart robots, and usually jump into Arduino or another microcontroller and end up overwelmed and disappointed. The EZ-Robot Project has all of the ground work done for you. This means the camera work is done for you. The voice recognition. Scripting. Joystick. Sensors. Servos. Motion. etc etc etc :)

Anyone with experience in Robotics accepts that the power of a PC is mandatory for a reliable, fast and effecient robot with an advanced featuerset. If you are building a complete household robot, then consider embedding a Tiny-ITX computer with the EZ-B.

My Omnibot (for example) has a $200 laptop controlling it at all times. The little laptop sits in the corner of the room. With the battery backup of the laptop, it makes for a perfect security system also. The camera takes photos of motion and activity when i'm not home. The 6 amp battery lasts up to 2 days without a charge. I also have a wireless joystick ($20 from ebay) that allows me to remote control the bot to move it. Or I can always speak and the voice recognition reacts.

1. Yes. Download a copy of ARC and install to see what you can do with it

2. If you use the C# API, it would all be up to your programming ability. The ARC application includes modules for color and motion tracking. The tracking methods use contrast and shape detection, but only for the motion.

3. The state of your robot is determined and controlled by the PC. If your application is coded to save its state, then it will always be remembered. It's up to you.

4. The Add-On page discusses methods of connection a microphone and speaker to the robot by a wireless usb hub. However, i do not advise to do this. The robot's motors and servos will generate a lot of noise, making the microphone useless while the robot is in motion. Locating a microphone within the room, or on your laptop (or pc) is best practice. I turn up the volume gain and locate a microphone in the room so I can speak anywhere in the room.

Thanks for a quick reply! :D

Do you have any videos of the voice recognition and syntesis in action? I'm getting an .NET error in ARC when clicking on voice recognition; It says something about different languages, and not supporting language (I'm using Norwegian)

So you recommend to code in C# ?

Thanks,

• Mix3rn

That is an interesting error. Are you running Windows XP, Vista or 7?

Interesting that it would mention something about languages. There are many many many international users from all over the world. If you could post a screenshot of the error, that would help.

We'll resolve it for ya :)

Well. After changing windows language to english it worked perfectly! I think the error is that norwegian is'nt supported by microsoft in speech recognition.

Running windows 7 btw

Oh great to hear! :D