Low-Cost Video Chat Robot

Since I relocated down to Mountain View, I wanted a good way to keep in touch with my fiance who is still back in Seattle. So, I decided to mount an old netbook I had on top of an iRobot Create to create a video chat robot that I could use to drive around the house remotely. Since it was a good procrastineering project, I decided to document it here.



There are two major components to the project: the iRobot Create which costs around $250 (incl. battery, charger, and USB serial cable) and the netbook which I got for around $250 as well. At $500, this is a pretty good deal considering many commerical ones go for several thousand dollars. The software was written in C# with Visual Studio Express 2010 and only tested on Windows 7 with the "Works on my machine" certifcation. =o) I'm sure there are TONs of problems with it, but the source is provided. So, feel free to try to improve it.

     Download Software:
     VideoChatRobot v0.1 (posted 2/9/2011)
     VideoChatRobot v0.2 (posted 2/11/2011)

Included are the executable, C# source, and two PDFs: one describing installation and usage of the control software, the other more information about modifying the charging station.

The software does a few nice things like try to setup UPnP router port forwarding automatically, queries the external IP needed to make a connection over the open internet, maintains a network heartbeat which stops the robot if the connection is lost, a control password, auto-connect on launch options, and even mediates the maximum acceleration/deceleration of the motors so it doesn't jerk so much or fall over.

The UPnP port forwarding is far from perfect is not well tested at all. If it works for you, consider yourself lucky. Otherwise, ask a friend how to set up port forwarding to enable remote control over the internet.

Once you have all the parts: the netbook, the robot, the serial cable, the software. You can probably be up an running within 5 minutes. Assembly is merely plugging cables together.  Mounting the netbook can be done with velcro or tape.  Building the rise stand is more challenging, but entirely optional.  I happen to have access to a laser cutter to make my clear plastic stand, but you can probably make something adequate out of wood.

Optional: Modifying the Charging Station
Probably one of the more interesting parts of this project from a procrastineering standpoint is the modifcation to the docking station so that it would charge something else in addition to the robot base.

What I did is admittedly pretty crude and arguably rather unsafe. So, this is HIGHLY NOT RECOMMENDED unless you are very comfortable working with high voltage electricity and accept all the personal risks of doing so and potential risks to others. This is provided for informational purposes only and I am not responsible for any damages or harm resulting from the use of this material. Working with household power lines can be very dangerous posing both potential electrocution and fire risk. This is also unquestionably a warranty voiding activity. DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS without appropriate supervision or expertise.

Now that I've hopefully scared you away from doing this... what exactly did I do? A high level picture is shown here:


The PDF document in the download describes changes in more detail. But, I had a lot of trouble trying to tap the existing iRobot Create charging voltage to charge something else. Primarily, because the charging voltage dips down to 0V periodically and holds for several milliseconds. That would require making some kind of DC uninterruptable power supply and made the project much more complex. The easiest way to support a wide range of devices that could ride on the robot was to somehow get 120V AC to the cargo bay... for those of you with some familiarity with electronics, you probably can see the variety of safety hazards this poses. So, again this is HIGHLY NOT RECOMMENDED and is meant to just be a reference for trying to come up with something better.

I actually do wish iRobot would modify the charging station for the Create to officially provide a similar type of charging capability. It is such a nice robot base and it is an obvious desire to have other devices piggy back on the robot that might not be able to run off the Create's battery supply. I personally believe it would make it a dramatically more useful and appealing robot platform.

Usage Notes
At the time of this post, I've been using it remotely for about a month on a regular basis between Mountain View and Seattle.  My nephews in Washington DC were also able to use it chase my cat around my house in Seattle quite effectively.  Thus far, it has worked without any real major problems. The only real interventions on the remote side have been when I ran it too long (>4 hours) and the netbook battery dies or having the optional 4th wheel on the iRobot Create pop-off which can be solved with some super glue.  Otherwise, the control software and the charging station have been surprisingly reliable. Using remote desktop software like TeamViewer, I can push software changes to the netbook remotely, restart the computer, put Skype into full screen (which it frustratingly doesn't have as a default option for auto-answered video calls), and otherwise check in on the heath of the netbook.