Holidays in 2020 are a little different. My family is spread out around the country, and due to the pandemic we're unable to gather together. To include other family members in our holiday celebrations, I built a telepresence robot from a Raspberry Pi, a Snap Circuits rover, and an iPad.
Love it! Due to a back condition, a friend had to work remotely for a year, and her office got her one of those commercial ipad based telepresence robots - she loved it and really helped her feel in the office.
Great you've been able to get the vast majority of the benefits so cheaply!
Neat project. I'm a big fan of Snap Circuits so this was a cool project to see. I'm thinking of doing something similar with Sphero RVR. My biggest worry is charging the base. The ideal solution seems like a roomba (with charging base).
Another commenter referenced a programmable roomba from iRobot - see above. I agree that might be ideal. The RVR might not be stable enough to haul around a tablet sitting atop what amounts to a big lever, but a camera mounted (low) on an RVR could be a lot of fun.
Great suggestion. The extra sensors in particular would be a welcome improvement. I had the Snap Circuits rover on hand already, so my total outlay was about $20.
A big question when building the base is whether it's heavy/wide enough to be stable. Mounting the tablet up high is great for interaction, but results in a high center of gravity and a long moment arm conspiring to cause instability. From the specs it looks like the iRobot might be both heavier and wider than the Snap Circuits rover, so it might be a great choice.
IMHO I feel like adding a periscope would keep your pricey phone or tablet closer to the ground and less likely to be destroyed if the platform tips over.
Part of the goal was to have a large image of the remote person’s face at a height that’s comfortable for interaction and conversation, which necessitates a screen mounted fairly high up.
To your point, I bet a picoprojector mounted down low could be made to project onto a lightweight screen in place of the tablet.
(The tablet arrangement worked well enough in practice, and we used a tablet that had already suffered child-related damage)
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[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 33.5 ms ] threadGreat you've been able to get the vast majority of the benefits so cheaply!
Its not much more at $200 and gets you all the sensors on a roomba (bump, cliff, etc), return to dock, charging, virtual walls, etc.
A big question when building the base is whether it's heavy/wide enough to be stable. Mounting the tablet up high is great for interaction, but results in a high center of gravity and a long moment arm conspiring to cause instability. From the specs it looks like the iRobot might be both heavier and wider than the Snap Circuits rover, so it might be a great choice.
To your point, I bet a picoprojector mounted down low could be made to project onto a lightweight screen in place of the tablet.
(The tablet arrangement worked well enough in practice, and we used a tablet that had already suffered child-related damage)