Building a Telepresence Robot.. and documenting it.

Version 1 of my Telepresence Robot

This isn't my first time at the rodeo. Last year, I built a Telepresence Robot for fun and just to see if I could do it. Well I did, and I went to RobotFest and showed it off. Kids loved it and their parents were curious. It was a great project and this time around, I want to have it planned out much better. 

The specs on this were pretty basic:

• Nexus 7 Tablet that controlled all of the Audio/Video communication through Google+ Hangouts.
• A tripod that I swiped from my fathers telescope.
• A kid's toy spaceship was used as the base. 
• Two DC motors that were at my Hackerspace.
• Arduino Uno that controlled incoming serial communications for handling of the DC Motors
• Arduino Motor Controller controlled the power from two NI-MH batteries that powered everything except to the tablet.
• Wansview IP Camera - This was really the hub of the project. Not only did it have a camera, it also had a built in web server along with non-advertised, serial out comm ports that you had to hack into from the bottom of the device. 

I gave a presentation at RobotFest that explains exactly how this worked. I've got a lot of work to do for this next version and I'm just now starting my design and analysis. Should be fun!  =)