Alt-BEAM Archive

Message #06787



To: beam@sgiblab.sgi.com
From: Senior kyled@scruznet.com
Date: Sat, 16 Oct 1999 16:50:33 -0700
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: Radio Communications?


Yes, well, you see, many people have had their robots talk to eachother.
And some have even TALKED to eachother! Steven Bolt's spider is capable
of chirping data back and forth. MIT's ants send IR data to eachother.
Many robots are radio-linked to a host computer or to other bots. This
technology has been _very_ developed. Think: Radio Controlled cars are
constantly recieving data from a transmitter via radio waves. Pagers are
constantly receiving digital data. Cell phones, GPS systems, car alarms,
remote controls, etc etc etc...

There are MANY cheap chips out there that'll transmit data for you,
whether you're using an Infrared Link, Radio Frequency, whatever. Search
around.

A quick and cheap way to get started is buying the kit at Ramseys
electronics (http://www.ramseyelectronics.com/) that let's you transmit
and recieive data between robots. Look under "Hobby Kits".

If those are too expensive for your taste, goto to digikey's website,
get a catalog or search online, and find those remote control chips.
Goto their manufacturers web site, get their datasheets, and learn about
them. The datasheets probably have an example radio circuit you can use
to get two robots to talk to eachother for under $20. Without a speaker,
without a lot of cash, and you'll learn a bit.

Happy BEAMing!
Kyle

Chris wrote:
>
> Ok, I know this is a lttle far-fetched but, I'm going to say this anyway. Wouldn't it be great if we could some how make some kind of radio transmitter and reciever on 2 robots (each has both), and one robot would come across some obsticle or something (hit a wall, anything you can think of), and then it would transmit a certain tone in acordance with what ever is needed, then the other robot would recieve this, play it on a tiny speaker (or something, it should work like a telephone beep)
>
> I know that sounded hard (and probably impossible), but it would be a great research and engineering project. e-mail me if you think this would be a great project.

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