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question

Gary Anderson asked Jun 9, '15

Robot control and missile launcher App for Amazon Echo

A number of my students in my software development class made fun final project demos demos controlling robots with Raspberry Pi and similar computers and launching missiles. While some were controlled with web pages or from the command line, this one brought it together with putting an Echo on the robot: https://youtu.be/bYTCSvbuK3I?list=PL_Iw42yAwcxJz3t4wWJdoMSl3v_tAf4dc --Gary Gary Anderson Math/Software Development Seattle Academy

alexa skills kit showcase

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James Chivers answered Jun 10, '15

That's cool! It looks like quite an involved project to write the glue between Echo + iRobot + Pi, etc. - some smart kids for sure :) I've been thinking about buying a Create 2[1] and attaching an Echo (+ battery power source) to 'mobilise' Echo around the home, as I think it would be neat to have it follow you about the place. [1] http://www.irobot.com/About-iRobot/STEM/Create-2.aspx

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Gary Anderson answered Jun 11, '15

James: We also have this working on the Create 2. I would suggest using the irobot module from NPM as a starter, but you will need to change the baud rate and will not have some of the features of the Create 1. If you want some of the extra features to the iRobot 2, you will need to add them to the module interface. What made this possible for the Amazon Echo as a high school project is that we have had a number of projects over the past few years have have controlled the iRobot as telepresence robots with web pages and with command line interfaces, etc. We have 7 robots using this platform in the school. The nerf launchers were new this year, but the kids picked up on it pretty easily, so it was really the integration of the several projects that made this demonstration interesting for us. For others interested, we use a reverse proxy with an Apache server to forward the Alexis commands to the robot. We have the SSL certificate on both the server and the Raspberry Pi server with the robot. It took a bit to figure out, but it works well for this type of use. --Gary Gary Anderson Math/Software Development Seattle Academy

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justin answered Jun 11, '15

Nerf-turret-enabled-robot? Good. Nerf-turret-enabled-robot-[b]POWEREDBYYOURVOICE?![/b] [i]Awesome.[/i] Great work! Way to give ED-209 a run for it's money!

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Ricardo Boza answered Jul 10, '15

Hi Gary, Excellent project. Is there any way to get more information about this project? Why the Echo should be over the Robot? Thanks.

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The Stig answered Jul 10, '15

If you go to 1:01 (when the iRobot turns around) you'll see the Echo and the Turrent are both being powered by the iRobot. So it could be that was they only way they were able to make it work. Not sure.

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The Stig answered Jul 10, '15

dupe post

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Ricardo Boza answered Jul 10, '15

The Stig, Thanks, but still can't understand, on the robot it will be draining battery. Is the robot and the missile launcher controlled with a Rpi? Is the Rpi the Web Service for Alexa skill service? Thanks.

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jjaquinta answered Jul 10, '15

I saw Gary Anderson writing about robots, misread it as "Gerry Anderson" and thought it was a joke... OK. I guess you get that a lot. :-)

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