how does the spykee know what to do
Spykee
detail #870850E by Erector/Meccano
Due to problems with Spykee's charging base overcharging the battery, Meccano has issued a replacement charging dock that has a built-in four hour shut off timer. This is available to all electric current Spykee owners free of accuse. All you take to exercise is send an email to sav@meccano.com with your full name and your mailing address. For more information on this issue, please visit the official Spykee website.
I take recently been looking into purchasing a telepresence robot. Currently, the but two options available are Rovio and Spykee. I oasis't been able to determine which ane to get, yet. Here I will try to point out all of the pros and cons of Erector's contribution to the robot world. Mayhap after I finish these ii pages, at least you'll know which ane yous desire.
Well, I decided on Spykee after a host of bidding on eBay. After an anxious week waiting for our newest member to arrive, we spent the better role of an evening putting him together - well-nigh four hours! Then, I spent two days trying to figure out how to go the freaking thing to work! Although you can install the proprietary software on a Linux system under Sun'south VirtualBox, I could not become Linux to maintain a connection to the robot's server in AdHoc mode - a requirement for setting the parameters in the robot itself. I wound up having to run the software on a true Windows XP automobile with an external USB wireless adapter. I was and then able to ready the robot's server to connect over a local wireless connection. Then the real fun began.
Using a supposedly open-source software packet (Meccano has yet to honor the GPL agreement and release their code) you tin control Spykee remotely over the internet from anywhere in the world. This means that you can become on vacation and still be able to proceed tabs on your dwelling house dwelling house - but log in to Spykee, drive him around the house and apply the built-in camera and microphone to monitor what you're missing. The first problem is that the software only runs on PCs and Macs. If you run Linux on your laptop, equally I exercise, or yous want to use your iPhone or PDA, your out of luck. Also, to be able to use Spykee remotely, you must commencement register and account with SpykeeWorld.com - the official web site. I don't similar the idea of my audio and video transmissions going through a third-party web site. Call me paranoid. On top of that, what happens if and/or when that spider web site goes down? We all know that products are not supported indefinitely. When the company no longer hosts that site, will your $300 robot get a really expensive newspaper weight? Something to consider... After talking with the company, I have establish that this is not a problem. Their site acts as a DNS server pointing requests for communication with your robot to your IP address (which I figured). If their site were to become down for any reason, of if you just prefer to not use their service, yous tin featherbed their DNS server and connect directly to your IP. For instructions on that, download the electronic mail from them here.
Another problem with this robot is that the angle of the camera (a low resolution 320x200 image with a xv fps framerate) is fixed. Yous ready the angle manually and then in that location is no way to change information technology remotely. Then if you take the camera angled downward so you lot can see where you are driving, and so you aren't going to exist able to see the faces of anyone you effort to interact with. And if you lot have the bending set higher so that you tin can see people, you aren't going to be able to meet annihilation that is in your fashion while you are trying to navigate the room. I accept seen a hack where someone added a servo and tied it into a couple of LEDs on Spykee so that the camera bending could be changed on the fly. And if Meccano ever releases the software code, I am sure that it would be even easier to do. In the meantime, however, you lot are still left with a major design snafu straight out of the box.
Locomotion is provided by 2 tracks as opposed to Rovio's iii-bike design. This gives Spykee a better turning radius - practically on a dime - than Rovio, but combined with the fact that Spykee is slightly peak heavy, it adds to the possibility that the robot will endeavor to climb over an object and flip itself over. If that happens, it will have to sit there until you get dwelling house to manually right him yourself.
One feature that I like to run across in a robot is said to be implemented in Spykee, but even past Meccano's own admission, information technology doesn't work quite as claimed. Brochures, printing releases and even some reviews, both official and unofficial, claim that the robot tin can decide when it'southward bombardment is low, seek out it's charger and dock itself. That would be not bad, just Roomba is the only robot I have ever seen that tin can actually perform that maneuver successfully. Spykee will dock itself, simply merely later on y'all take guided him to within a few feet of information technology's docking base. Not very autonomous if you ask me. And more than a little misleading.
That'south another drawback - there is zip at all autonomous about Spykee. He is only capable of following commands that you give it. If you tell it to go forward and then somehow you lose your internet connectedness, y'all are liable to discover that, having continued to follow your 'forward' command blindly, Spykee has run into an object and is at present lying flat on his back wheels simply a-spinnin'. At the very least I think it should have an object-detection and avoidance organisation. And the power to patrol information technology's environment on it'due south ain, perchance emailing you if annihilation out of the ordinary is found, would exist a fantastic addition to information technology'southward somewhat express repertoire.
You might be asking, 'Are in that location whatsoever advantages to this robot!?' To be honest, afterward re-reading what I've written, I am likewise! Ane matter that draws me to this robot is the fact that it actually looks like a robot, whereas Rovio looks like a freaking UFO. Another tick in the pro column is the name. Erector is a well-established visitor with years of customer service to stand backside. WowWee (the makers of Rovio) cannot make the same claim. I sent Meccano an email requesting further clarification on the auto-docking claim. The electronic mail was bounced back stating that the recipients mailbox was also full. That was enough to brand me question my faith in the Erector name. And then, somehow, I received an answer to the question that had been returned to me every bit undeliverable! Explicate that one! Now equally for WowWee'south customer support, did you know that if you don't buy their robot from i of their 'approved' retailers (and they will non tell you who those retailers are) so they will non accolade the warranty? Check out this page for more information on that subject. I will say this... every question I've had for Erector/Meccano, they accept answered within a day or two. Just like customer service should be (are you lot listening WowWee?)
Another thing that I similar almost Spykee is that, being an erector set, you take to build it before you can apply it. With 210 parts, and the ability to use pieces from any Erector set, the concluding pattern of your robot is express only by your imagination.
All in all, I have to say that I am extremely pleased with my determination. I will take to do something well-nigh the stationary camera problem, and I plan on adding a couple of additional flashlights to assist in "nighttime vision", merely overall... well worth the toll of admission. : )
Twelvemonth Released: 2007
Original Cost: $300
Technical Specifications:
Processor: unknown proprietary design
Power Supply: 9.6v NiMH rechargeable battery pack
Dimensions: xiv" tall x 8" square
Weight: 4.v lbs
Click Here to Download the Spykee PC Transmission
Click Hither to Download the Spykee Mac Transmission
Spykee can built in either standard, scorpion or lunar configurationsor any other design that you tin create
Since the Official Site is no longer upward, I don't think anyone will care if I host the software here, and then...
Click Here to Download the Spykee Software for PC
Click Here to Download the Spykee Software for Mac
Erector/Mecanno has finally released the Source Lawmaking for Spykee's firmware under the GNU Licensing Agreement. You can download it from their web site here.
Visit the Official Spider web Site
Source: http://www.robotsandcomputers.com/robots/spykee.htm
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