The Cellbots app for Android was written in Java using the Android SDK, and can be found in the Market today as a free download. The easiest way to try out a Cellbot is to load this app on your Android 2.2 (Froyo) and up phone and then connect to any of the supported robot platforms such as a Roomba or LEGO MINDSTORMS that you may already own. Once connected you can drive the robot using the phone as a remote control or find clever ways to mount the phone directly on the robot to act as the brain. From there you can drive the robot remotely using a web browser on a desktop or mobile device or even run the Cellbots app on a 2nd Android phone for phone-to-phone communications.
The Cellbots Remote Control mode includes a directional pad (D-Pad), a joystick, use of the phone’s accelerometer, and voice controls. These commands get sent over Bluetooth to the robot so the range is limited to 25 feet or so. For unlimited range, mounting the phone to the robot will put it in Brain Mode. Once the phone is connected you’ll have the option of chatting with the robot using Google Talk where you can simply type text messages such as ‘move forward’, ‘stop’, or ‘picture’, and have it obey your command. This means you can talk with your robot from anywhere on the planet that you and the bot can get an internet connection.
Brain Mode also supports a web interface that you can access over the local wifi network to drive the robot with a mouse, touch screen, or keyboard commands. The phone on the robot will also use the camera to stream video to the browser so you can see through its eye from anywhere else on the local network. The Cellbots app will also utilize the phone’s other capabilities such as text-to-speech to talk, take still pictures, get the compass heading, or show a personality on the screen. Doing this allows for robots to be less expensive because your phone can provide all of these great capabilities instead of sitting unused in your pocket.
Try using the web app by starting a shared profile for your robot and use the Custom HTTP method with ‘Use local server’ checked. Then open your browser and type in the IP address you see in the app with /index.html at the end. In my house I’m using http://192.168.1.15:8080/index.html for example.
For users with two Android phones, you can run Cellbots on both of them for Remote Control to Brain Mode over the local network, through Google Talk, or using your own custom web server. This will provide the richest Remote Control UI that exposes an action shelf to quickly send commands to take picture, talk, change personality, or ask for the current compass reading. Try it between friends by sharing your robot profile with them using a QR code to scan right from the Cellbots app.
Android app developers can go ever further by using the source code to add new control UI’s, Brain Mode functions, and support for additional robot platforms. We also can’t wait to see web services connected for the age of Cloud Robotics to begin.
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First of all, I am new to java programming and android.
I have downloaded the java source code, when I open it in Eclipse, there are many errors and I have no clue how to fix it. Is there any guideline to open the source code in Eclipse? Or any other recommended IDE?
java new app very usepul.pepole like to this apps and java other new apps relaese
Great job!
I’ve tried to use my smartphone with Lego Mindstorms using your software.
Unfortunately when I’m using “brain mode” with local http server everything is working fine except video streaming – I can’t see anything.. Should I install some additional software to use this feature?
Lukasz, how were you able to get the brain mode to work with an NXT robot? Can you please provide a basic tutorial?
Awesome! Does this still support serial over audio?
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I tried to set up according to the instruction:
Try using the web app by starting a shared profile for your robot and use the Custom HTTP method with ‘Use local server’ checked
but I cannot find where the checkbox is for ‘Use local server’
Android is much cooler than iPhone. No one can dispute that! Iphone is way to closed up and Android has a much more innovative community. Just look at all the cool apps in the Android Market. The “1 Touch Love You” Android app shows how innovative Google is. It’s so simple that it’s hard to believe anyone at Apple could have not thought of it.
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works great with MindStorm nxt 2 and Sony Google Internet tv box / remote as eyes / steering wheel. Also found online access is available if I forward relevant ports via wireless router… More fun to follow in my son’s school ~ at 8 yrs old he has been learning about robots for 3+ years!!!
Great work! As soon as my Create arrives, I will try it out. Few quick questions (I hope you find the time to answer them):
1. Does it look good on tablets?
2. Can it run in the background (as a service)?
3. Is there any ADK-support in the pipeline?
Also, I am looking for a cheaper alternative for the the Element-Direct Bluetooth Adapter Module. Did anybody try a Bluetooth DB-9 module with a db-9 to db-25 adapter?
I am building an omni-directional movement capable robot which will be controlled mostly using voice commands from my android and I need to know if it is possible to create voice commands for this robot in addition to the ones already in the app so that I can use the omni-directional capability of my robot to it’s full potential.
Fascinating blog! Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere?
A design like yours with a few simple tweeks would really make
my blog jump out. Please let me know where you got your theme.
Thank you