Mobile phone controlled Robot car

Glenman

Hello everyone,
I am currently working on an interesting project in collage. I am using a mobile phone to send direction instructions (fwd, Rev, Right, Left) to a Robot over the GPRS network i.e. the number 2 key on the phone keypad will be used for forward. The instructions will be sent over GPRS in packets addressed to a server computer on the collage LAN. The computer will then forward the robot instruction to the Robot cat via an RPC (Radio Packet Control) link. Can anyone give me any ideas on what type of mobile phone I should use (I will need to down load a program onto it) and how to go about the java programming required to download onto the mobile phone that will do this. Advise will be greatly appriciated,
Regards
Glenman

PhoenixRising

I know that what you are trying to do is quite different, but this might give you a few ideas. It works over bluetooth as opposed to the GPRS and RPC model you are proposing. Anyway, just thought it might be food for thought (or an excuse to buy one these cool little cars...for research obviously.:D)

Capt'n Midnight

Lego can work on infra red.
Maybe you could use a phone directly ???

finnpark

got this on google. It is a paper on exactly what your doing.

PDF] A Case Study on Home Robot based on Mobile Internet
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
... commands, by which the home robot is controlled, are transferred to the master’s
PC server through short messages service or GPRS packets using mobile phones ...
www.metc.pku.edu.cn/melab/publications/mepaper03.pdf - Similar pages


Here is the paper:

http://www.metc.pku.edu.cn/melab/publications/mepaper03.pdf. Make sure to look at the links and references at the bottom of the page.

There is loads of other stuff on google about GPRS controlled devices.


By the way I think that there may be a better forum on here for asking about GPRS stuff??? And I am sure there are loads of research papers on this on the web.

scoby

Try looking into standards like MIDP 1.0 and 2.0
these give a certain level of functionality in java that's common to a number of phones by different manafacturers.

There's also a C/C++ standard called morphun that isn't as widely supported AFAIK.

Any modern phone should support the java standards just check if it advertises as able to play java games.

Capt'n Midnight

http://www.freewareppc.com/communication/cybercontrol.shtml

Description:
Cybercontrol offers the unique possibility to connect a Palm size PC, Handheld PC and Pocket PC with Lego Robotics products by serial Lego tower or an alternative communication device.

You are so able to control and manipulate the Lego Cybermaster and also the Lego Mindstorm with the Palm size PC, Handheld PC and Pocket PC.

So all you need is a phone that is Pocket PC 2002 ish

Bacchus

I did a similar project for my final year in Uni.
Basically what you need is a phone that 1) is GPRS compatible (shouldn't be a problem, there's loads) 2) is compatible with MIDP 1:0. Not sure about MIDP 2:0. I don't think any phone in Ireland support that yet. Besides the only real significant difference is that MIDP 2:0 can use TCP protocols, you don't need to use HTTP GET/POST commands to transmit data. With MIDP 1:0 you need to use HTTP commands which is no real biggi anyway.
Go to java.sun website and download all the software you need to run the compiler and emulator on your PC. Can't remember what bits you need exactly, but sun have a good tutorial for helping you get set up. I used the J2ME wireless toolkit (WTK) to compile and run my java programs on the PC - saves you having to load it onto your phone all the time. Once again a tutorial is available to get you set up, just do a search - sry I don't have the time to find the exact links for you myself.
First of all, familiarise yourself with the J2ME environment. Do a few tutorials, in particular any ones that deal with sending HTTP commands - this was the hardest part for me to learn. You can practise sending and receiving commands to another PC on the network to make sure you're doing it right. The WTK has a phone emulator which allows you to run the program as though it's on a phone.
As for downloading the programs onto the phone, I used bluetooth. You can also use data cables or there's a way you can do it "over the air" - never checked that one out but it does work. You need to copy the .JAR and .JAD files that your compiler creates to your phone. The phone should automatically recognise the files and install the program.

That's all I can tell you offhand. Afraid I'm not much help on the robot side of things though but if you have any more questions post em up and I might see them - I haven't been visiting boards much as of late so sry if I don't reply.