Podcasting Robot “Podbot” on MAKE Magazine
The ever so anticipated interview between Team Podbot and MAKE magazine was released today. Its great to see the publicity that the robot got in the past few days, and hey my name was on this article!
Mack D. Male and Dickson Wong – are the two guys that brought the robot to Gnomedex. Andrew Ng and Ashish Patel – the two guys that worked with them on the project in Edmonton, AB, Canada.
This article has some good pictures of the Podbot, even under the hatch. You can see the part of the robot I worked on. Here is a quick synopsis of how it works from a technical stand point:
The on-board tablet pc is a Toshiba Portege M200, and the controller tablet we’re using is a Compaq TC1000. The Podbot has a USB hub inside that connects the webcam, ground effects (neon lights) and the serial connector (that connects to the circuit board for controlling the motors). The two back wheels have a servo motor for each, and are powered by a 6V lead-acid battery. The circuit board is powered by a 5V battery and was built from scratch. The Podbot is controlled over wifi, and the communication protocol we’re using is SOAP messaging implemented by Microsoft’s Web Services Enhancements 2.0. Everything is written in C# and .NET.
