Inspiration
At WPI, we have a Robotics class where little arduino robots are controlled by a field-computer over bluetooth. Previously, this field computer was an Arduino Mega with a big expensive shield. Our project superseeds that previous system, and allows students to debug and test without an actual field computer!
What it does
We developed an android app, which communicates over bluetooth and USB to Arduino Megas. It reads the current field state over USB and sends it out over bluetooth. However, if you don't have the field, the app allows you to setup a field in software and send pretend messages to your robot. We also include a low-level bluetooth debugger to send raw messages to test your robot.
How I built it
We used Arduino for the robot code, Java for the Arduino App, and lots of blood sweat and tears!
Turns out threading is hard
When you're doing two methods of Asynchronous IO, it get's pretty complicated. We may have as ,many as 4 asynchronous tasks going at once, none of which can be on the UI thread!
We're proud that
We are able to give back to a class that taught us a lot.
Our Stretch-goals
We wanted to also host a webserver in the app so that your group mates or instructor could tap in and watch/control your robot through their laptops, rather then on the tiny phone. We didn't have time, but it's a great idea!
Log in or sign up for Devpost to join the conversation.