
Show HN: Live control a robot running around my house - tkl
http://runmyrobot.com
======
nfoz
Who put a talking robot in a park full of kids and gave control of it to the
Internet???

~~~
rgiuly
haha, that was I, hey what could possibly go wrong?

------
tkl
One robot is in Santa Barbara, California and the other is in La Jolla in San
Diego, California at a park somewhere. If you type in the chat box, the robot
will say the chat out load.

~~~
enraged_camel
Crazy. Are you going to write something about how you built it?

~~~
rgiuly
Sure, here's a video about how to build one with a Raspberry Pi:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI59iFtDspA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LI59iFtDspA)

~~~
tkl
Here's a readable summary (also said below):

Raspberry Pi that runs the python program that sends video to the webserver
using ffmpeg. Adafruit Motor HAT to connect the motors to the pi. Android
phone is strapped to robot that runs a custom android app that receives chats
from the website and also says them out loud using the Android API for text-
to-speech. Everything sits on top of a 3d printed chassis. Cheap logitech
webcam. Web app is a node server, socketio, ec2.

~~~
NotSammyHagar
Is your software open source or available, it looks like it's python from the
video. I want to buy your kit, but I'd like to build a robot that drives
around my house while we are out, with a camera. So I would want to be the
only one with access to the camera, turn it on when the alarm goes on. I a
dev, I can hack python just fine. The reason I haven't done this myself is all
the work to get to the hardware, and basic software.

Guessing the software arch, you encode the video on the robot and then send it
to your backend site. Then you have a separate listener on the pi, that just
takes single commands from the website. I imagine not running a webserver on
the pi makes the response much faster and doesn't run down the battery. So for
a private webcam in my house, a kind of alarm system, i need a system there to
capture the video stream and act as a remote host that I can access from
outside. I don't want to copy your webserver stack, I'd prefer something
lighter weight, that I could run as a service on a linux or windows pc.

~~~
rgiuly
Hey there, yes the kit will give you a great start on your project. Let me
know if you have any trouble with the purchasing system.

[http://runmyrobot.com/kit](http://runmyrobot.com/kit)

This code, which runs on the robot (RasPi), is open and available here. You
are correct, it receives commands from the server via socket io.

[https://github.com/runmyrobot/runmyrobot](https://github.com/runmyrobot/runmyrobot)

As for the server, you can use our site with privacy if you want. The privacy
feature is brand new, so you can't see it in the interface yet, but it's
there. We just have to turn it on. Or, you can build your own server/webclient
if you want. We can provide all information you need for messaging protocol
and such that's used to move the robot.

Let me know if you have any questions

Best!

Rick Giuly rgiuly@gmail.com Co-founder RunMyRobot

------
jonaf
This reminds me of Burger King's subservientchicken.com, except theirs was
prerecorded video. This is way cooler.

~~~
rgiuly
And far less creepy looking than the Chicken if I do say so..

------
fphhotchips
Twitch Plays Real Life!

------
fiatjaf
Craziest thing in the world. This is actually real.

------
fiatjaf
I can't donate because paypal.me is not available in my country (I wasn't
going to donate much, but maybe others were).

~~~
tkl
Ah, taking note. Thanks

------
diegorbaquero
WOOT? This is amazing! One of the best demos I've seen in my life.

------
CodeWriter23
That was amusing. Thanks!

------
ge96
This is awesome. The real time chat too. Damn!

~~~
rgiuly
thanks dude! we put a lot of work into it

------
taternuts
you seem to be console.logging every move request you register, not sure if
you mean to do that or left something in from dev

~~~
rgiuly
thanks for the heads up!

------
EJTH
You should clean up your apartment!

------
mgkimsal
i'm reminded of 'suspended' from infocom...

------
anon4this1
any link to details on what parts you use for these bots?

~~~
tkl
Raspberry Pi that runs the python program that sends video to the webserver
using ffmpeg. Adafruit Motor HAT to connect the motors to the pi. Android
phone is strapped to robot that runs a custom android app that receives chats
from the website and also says them out loud using the Android API for text-
to-speech. Everything sits on top of a 3d printed chassis. Cheap logitech
webcam. Web app is a node server, socketio, ec2.

~~~
moondev
What an awesome project. I love that you leveraged android devices. Has
everything you need for execution. Well done!!

------
rgiuly
This robot is live!

------
giis
this is nice! playing with robots :)

~~~
rgiuly
thanks bro! we appreciate the feedback

------
tus
ROBOT FIGHT!!

------
kimshibal
i run your leg. lol

