Peripherals/Robots

The main idea here is to manage a simple robot from the analogue output of the XO, the first to do is making a simple activity that send signals to a simple circuit connected to a couple of motors. The output could be digital or analogue.The digital output is convinient for direct aplication to dc motors The source code has to be visible for the children. then this motors have to be joined in a simple platform, made form recyclable materials, so the cost of the construction are very slow. This activity also has to be shareable by the means of the hellomesh activity. in a later stage of development the little robot has to be controlled remotely.

Also the USB alternatives should be investigated.

This page shows one example, an XO on top of a Roomba robot vacuum cleaner. This project cleverly uses the camera to show the robot's view on a webpage; the same page allows the robot to be driven remotely.

Within the 1A USB power limit, a few small hobby servos could be connected and run off of the OLPC's battery. They could easily receive a pulse width signal from the headphone port, or a $1 USD microcontroller to control them via USB.