Roomba + Wii remote + Perl = Awesome

Anonymous Wii Lov'n Coward writes "Check out the WiiRoomba, a mashup using a Wii remote, a perl script, and the Darwiin Remote software. While a little sluggish to respond, the Roomba is entirely controlled by the Wii remote accelerometers." All of the source code to do it yourself is available at the site linked, along with a youtube video of how it works.

Strange

[Cytlid]

This is like an odd parallel universe movie where a younger Matt Damon controls his vacuum with a remote control.

Re:

[Donjo]

I was gonna say Mike Birbiglia (the commedian)

Re:

[baldass_newbie]

younger AND gayer

That's umpossible.

Perl Vacuum

[Brewskibrew]

This sucks.

Cool hack, but

[Oddster]

Isn't the point of the Roomba that it doesn't need control?

Although I suppose it would be really useful if you added a servo arm, and could use the contraption to get yourself a beer without leaving your chair.

Re:

[Hadlock]

I can't wait to set this up for some sort of battle bot. Just rip the servos, etc out of the roomba and put them on a battle bot or RC truck. RC plane would be neat, but I think BT tops out at 30 ft or so.

Re:

[LKM]

It goes crazy in every house. That's how it works. It's essentially random (yes, it does have some heuristics, but it doesn't measure your place and then calculate a path to vacuum everything), but eventually, it'll have vacuum'd every space simply because it keeps on going and going.

And you know this how?

[shaneh0]

Seriously, it's not so primitive. When it starts a cleaning mission it first determines the size of the room and uses that info to load different rule sets.

It's actually pretty sophisticated.

Why say things that you don't know to be true? I don't get it.

Actually...

[shaneh0]

The roomba already ships with a remote for this purpose. This is just a cooler remote.

Wrong Department...

[__aaclcg7560]

It should be "People who have too much time on their hands" department. :P

Re:

[Freaky Spook]

Thats inherited from its parent. /.

Re:

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

"It should be "People who have too much time on their hands" department. :P" ... said the guy posting on Slashdot.

Spoiler

[Nerdfest]

It sucks.

Re:

[EightySeven]

Actually... it blows.

Re:

[monoqlith]

It actually involves quantum mechanics, so it can suck and blow at the same time.

Re:

[steveo777]

You know, I had a physics teacher way back in high school who had a sign that he liked to quote... often.

Something like: "Physics can never suck, or blow. It can push, it can pull. But will never suck or blow."

Re:

[tomzyk]

I ahhhh.... don't see ahhhh... what you're ahhhh... trying to ahhhh get at... ahhhhh.... I thought the good... the good... the ahh.... err... the movie ahhh.. was pretty ahhhhhh good and ahhhhhhh well ahhhhh scripted.

Next: Wii-mote RC cars ?

[neurocutie]

Cool hack, but better than just a regular RC joystick controller ???

Re:Next: Wii-mote RC cars ?

[FleaPlus]

Already done:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2581645410 431075627 [google.com]

Re:

[Thuktun]

Cool hack, but better than just a regular RC joystick controller ???

Am I the only one that noticed that the axes of control seem to be backwards? You turn the remote clockwise to make the Roomba turn counter-clockwise and vice versa. You push the remote forward (down) to make it back up and vice versa.

This can (presumably) be easily fixed in the source code, but it seems ironic, given the intuitive way the Wiimote is used on the Wii.

The roomba...

[xamomike]

sucks alot. But good work on the Wii remote!

Re:

[wjsteele]

Interestingly enough, the Roomba DOESN'T "suck alot<sic>." In fact, it doesn't use a low pressure area at all, but relies solely on brushes to pick up any unwanted particulate matter on the floor.

Bill

Re:

[jrockway]

That's not true; the Roomba has a vacuum in addition to the brushes. The stuff it sucks up is "stored" underneath the filter (and is why the Roomba needs a filter to begin with).

You're wrong

[shaneh0]

There's so much misinformation here about the Roomba. It's a vacuum. It "sucks." It does it quite well. It's a well built product that does what it's supposed to do.

Here's a thought: Don't try to offer facts on what something does if you don't have a little first hand knowledge.

Re:

[wjsteele]

1.) I stand corrected. It does create a small vacuum. However, after investigating it, it is a very small vacuum designed only to keep dust inside the bin, not to actually draw it in. It's more used to offset the high pressure created from the brushes "pushing" debris into the bin than to pick up any dirt. It's a very clever design. The filters are used to prevent dust from escaping.

2.) I do have a lot of first hand knowledge. I've been using and playing with Roomba's since they were first introduce

Good Will

[huper]

My boy is wicked smart!

Why Perl?

[FreeRadicalX]

Out of curiosity, why use a language like Perl to do something dynamic like this? I'm no code jockey, but I always thought that Perl was meant for run-it-once type applications that handle things like text processing and database searching. Wouldn't Java be better suited for this?

Re:

[Professor_UNIX]

I'm no code jockey, but I always thought that Perl was meant for run-it-once type applications that handle things like text processing and database searching.

Well then you would be wrong. Perl can be used for anything. In fact, the hard core Perl coders write video games in Perl.

Re:

[Surye]

Fun ones [frozen-bubble.org]

Re:Why Perl?

[FooAtWFU]

Hey, look at the code. The important bits seem to be like

printf $roomba "\x89%c%c%c%c", $vh,$vl,$rh,$rl;

Elsewhere, they seem to be communicating with another application through a named pipe. Text processing and the UNIX philosophy: Perl at its finest.

Re:Why Perl?

[Nasarius]

Out of curiosity, why use a language like Perl to do something dynamic like this? I'm no code jockey, but I always thought that Perl was meant for run-it-once type applications that handle things like text processing and database searching.

The question is valid, but the nonsensical rambling that follows detracts from it. So I'll just say that modern scripting languages like Perl, Python, or Ruby can do just about anything but systems programming. In fact, they are perfect for doing what the summary seems to describe: taking the output from one program, parsing it, and sending instructions to another program.

Re:

[chromatic]

I'll just say that modern scripting languages like Perl, Python, or Ruby can do just about anything but systems programming.

I don't know why you say that; they can do systems programming too. FFTs or real-time matrix manipulations or low-level bit-twiddling, less so.

Re:

[syousef]

Can't do "systems programming"? I once taught a subject called Systems Programming and it involved teaching the students Perl. I kid you not. The subject was about Unix sys admin type work (including C, Perl, and sh). I take it you mean real time systems when you say systems programming?

Re:

[Covener]

[perl] Can't do "systems programming"? I once taught a subject called Systems Programming and it involved teaching the students Perl. I kid you not. The subject was about Unix sys admin type work (including C, Perl, and sh). I take it you mean real time systems when you say systems programming?

In the conventional sense "Systems Programming" is contrasted with application programming -- careless example: kernel vs. userspace

Re:

[Eravnrekaree]

Perl is a highly dynamic language and is actually well suited to long running applications. There really is no reason it cannot be. In fact, the automatic memory allocation and the VM adds a level of safety. The problems of buffer overruns are much less on perl and it is also eisier to prevent memory leaks. In my opinion, Ruby, Python and perl are better choices for applications than C or C++.

Re:Why Perl?

[bockelboy]

Wouldn't Java be better suited for this?

No offense, but Java would be a particularly bad choice for this application. The real work done here is "gluing" two things together at a system level - the Roomba program and the Wii program. Java is uniquely miserable at interacting on the system level. Where Java excels is object-oriented architectural design and huge enterprise-level programs.

So, if you want a scalable application server, use Java. If you need to tie two programs together, use a scripting language like Python or Perl. If you know you can limit yourself to a Unix shell environment, Perl may be best (and this is from a Python junkie!)

Re:

[cabazorro]

Think of Perl as the nail gun and C as the wood beams. The bluetooth device drivers and speed critical system calls from the kernel libs are written in C.
Perl is ideal for this type of job. Is light, powerful and it NAILS the job every time.

Re:

[thzinc]

Perl is no more difficult to maintain than any other language.

Bad code is bad code, and bad code is difficult to maintain. Good code is good code and is generally maintainable.

Writing good code in Perl, just like any other language, is left up to the programmer.

(And, I know of more than a few large, well-maintained systems written in Perl.)

Re:

[Fordiman]

Hey, maybe he's trying to say Perl coders write bad code.

(Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!)

No, seriously. Your point's correct - but the reason perl is often hard to maintain (not always) is that often times, a perlscript is written as either a hack to an existing system (such as in this article), or as a quick-and-dirty script to get something to happen.

I usually think of Perl as system bailing wire, and Bash as computer bondo. You can build great, workable things with both, but there are tools with be

Re:

[hachete]

The "I-have-too-many-ways-to-do-one-thing" that is perl philosophy leaves the programmer with a load of synonyms to remember - so, yeah it's harder to maintain than say python. Oh, and what about

local
and
my

2 keywords whose function seem to be similar, but which are not.

Oh yeah, and the $_. Was this language written to be obtuse? I think it was.

I know of more than one pile-of-shit 30,000 line programs written in perl.

Re:

[Jeppe Salvesen]

Two good pieces of advice for beginning Perl programmers:

1. Use 'my' until you understand what 'local' does.
2. Never use $_ outside of map and sort blocks.

Remember, other people may need to read your code one day..

Re:

[hachete]

those statements should be engraved on the mess that is the O'Reilly book of Perl. And on CPAN.

The problem with the first statement is that "my" was introduced *after local, so when faced with suck-arse code written under 4, you have no choice but to resign.

My advice to any programmer tempted to write a "quick script" (particularly in Perl): Don't Fucking Do It. Go read a book, go learn VBscript. Anything. Just think of the poor bastard who has to maintain the crap you are about to perpetrate.

Re:

[Hercynium]

Oh yeah, and the $_. Was this language written to be obtuse? I think it was.

Perl was designed to be concise.

Re:

[hachete]

Oh yeah, and the $_. Was this language written to be obtuse? I think it was.

Perl was designed to be concise.

And programmers who use Perl pay for that conciseness big-time.

Re:

[Hercynium]

Ruby is concise. Perl is terse.

Good distinction, considering the context in which each word is most commonly used.

Like Larry Wall, I'm a bit of a linguistic junkie myself and respect the way that two words can have the exact same definition in the dictionary and yet two different connotations. My comment was actually supposed to be somewhat of a joke though... a concise statement in itself. :)

I still haven't taken the time to learn Ruby, but Perl code tends to be difficult to read because most programmers s

Sorry, no.

[jotaeleemeese]

Perl allows programmers to shoot themselves in the foot as they bloody see fit, which instills a mentality of firefighting instead of one of properly designed solutions.

Other languages deal much better with this by means of their inflexible syntactic structure.

If you want a quick hack most likely never to need maintenance again (and here, I dare anybody to say you can be sure of this in a professional environment), then yes, Perl is fine.

If you need maintainable code, then Perl is the worst starting point f

iRobot could have made Roomba remote controlled...

[popo]

... but they didn't. Because the whole point of the Roomba is that you don't
need to control it.

And why is this "awesome"? Is the Wii remote better than a standard joystick
remote (like those used for RC cars) for this application?

Re:iRobot could have made Roomba remote controlled

[mccalli]

... but they didn't. Because the whole point of the Roomba is that you don't need to control it.

No and yes, in that order. My Roomba certainly came with a remote control that can steer the device, but I've never found a need to use it. However, I still appreciate this hack for what it is - a spot of fun done just because you can.

Cheers,
Ian

Re:iRobot could have made Roomba remote controlled

[fimbulvetr]

My roomba discovery came with a remote, and I swear the only reasons my sisters come over any more is to "clean" using the roomba w/ the remote. It's useful for the occasional shutdown when it's too loud, but other than that, you can't even issue the park command with the remote - and there's no reverse!

You *can* remote-park a Roomba

[LKM]

you can't even issue the park command with the remote

That's what I thought at first, too, but turns out it's not true. In fact, it's pretty much the only thing the remote is useful for. If you steer the roomba using the remote, it will park automatically as soon as you approach the docking station.

Re:

[LKM]

Pressing two buttons at the same time does not work on my remote. That's the first thing I've tried, of course. I don't have the Scheduler, though.

Re:

[instarx]

... but they didn't. Because the whole point of the Roomba is that you don't
need to control it.

And why is this "awesome"? Is the Wii remote better than a standard joystick
remote (like those used for RC cars) for this application?

This kind of comment is what drives me crazy on slashdot. Why are so many here so bloody literal minded and opposed to innovation for innovation's sake? This is a test bed. A prototype. A proof of concept. No one actually needs a Wii controlled Roomba. Now that the concept is

It's only a question of time now.

[gijoel]

Before they REBEL! [youtube.com]

Let me see if I understand this

[fm6]

You're tired of vacuuming by hand, so you buy a robot vacuum that works all by itself. Then you add a clever hack that allows you to control the robot vacuum just like the manual vacuum you had before...

Mmmaaaat Daaaamon

[popo]

(sorry. I couldn't help it.)

Re:

[cadeon]

Matt Daemon.

Re:

[Sporkinum]

Damn.. And fresh out of mod points too!

"mashup"

[sinserve]

What is this trendy-word shit? MASHUP? Who the fuck came up with this word? In multimedia we already had "remixing" and "sampling".

Hardware and software can not "mashup", they're "coupled" or "integrated" in manager-speak, but in honest everyday speak hardware is "driven" or "controlled" or "interfaced" with software.

It could have been "controling roomba with wii remote". Perl would never show up in the headline because software drivers are no often given banner credit. They're expected to work.

 

Re:

[mattwarden]

In my day we called it "remixing", and you had to do it under candlelight, using toothpicks, bubblegum, and pieces of film, while walking in 2 feet of snow, uphill both ways.

Give it a rest, gramps.

Re:

[jfedor]

I blame Cory Doctorow [google.com].

"Mashup?" Excuse me?

[Anonymous Coward]

The word you're looking for is "hack."

Web 2.0. Blogosphere. Mashup. Digital Rights Management. Is our culture so completely saturated with marketer-speak that now -everyone- feels compelled to use bullshit terms like these in place of normal words with established meanings? People, we need to stop talking like boners.

Pretty Flipin Awesome!

[phantomcircuit]

As you can all see that was Pretty Flipin Awesome!

wtf...

Re:

[enrgeeman]

wtf...
you mean what the flip?

Re:

[jpardey]

I sort of hope so... but then again I sort of don't. Either way, I feel sick.

Envy

[amdurak]

Come on, people. He did something we would never think of doing. Regardless of which object and what purpose the object which he controlled has, in my humble opinion it is well done. He got Slashdotted, we did not.

Re:

[Crizp]

I'll bite.

I agree with you in that Slashdot has been on its way down the drain but it seems to be climbing up again (here, I was about to insert a funny analogy about a "final solution" involving Drain-O)

To help better Slashdot and shape it the way you like, remember to click the "Firehose" link if you see it and participate in choosing stories for the front page. Oh, you're anonymous. Nevermind. I don't know if you can see it.

And don't be a coward.

How programable is the Roomba?

[RalphBNumbers]

Taking this hack a step farther:

Since Roombas can be made to connect to computers via bluetooth adapters [makezine.com], it stands to reason that if they are sufficiently programable, they could be made to respond directly to the Wiimote via bluetooth, without a Mac playing middleman. This might even eliminate a lot of the the lag the story mentions.

Re:

[wjsteele]

The Roomba itself isn't actually programmable. What they have exposed is cool, however. You have access to all of it's sensors and can drive the motors via commands. With that, you can add a small PIC or BasicStamp controller and drive it via serial commands. The BlueTooth adapter simply extends those serial commands to another device.

I have a Roomba Discovery that I have added a BasicStamp computer and BlueTooth. That way, I can issue commands via BlueTooth or download programs that it will execute.

Wow. Amazing!

[93 Escort Wagon]

So, for the cost of the Roomba, the Wii, and a computer (so let's say, what, $1500?)... he's basically duplicated my $100 Hoover vacuum. Except my Hoover is more responsive to its handle than the Roomba is to the Wii remote.

(Of course it is cool nonetheless...)

Re:

[emurphy42]

So, for the cost of the Roomba, the Wii, and a computer (so let's say, what, $1500?)...

Okay, it makes for a good joke, but it's not really fair to count the cost of stuff that the guy would've owned anyway. This probably includes the computer, and quite possibly the Wii and Roomba as well.

What was the name of the guy who hacked into a telco server and stole some document, got sued for some ridiculously high figure that included e.g. the cost of the computer that the document was originally word-

Wii math

[Dan East]

What's with all the Wii math today? Something + Wii = Something Else

Dan East

Re:

[SeaFox]

Yup, corporations call it "innovation" or "new patent idea".

Roomba Wars

[EonBlueApocalypse]

The next video I expect to see attached weapons and a small arena.

New word!

[Duncan3]

So is "mashup" the hip new word for "programming"?

I guess if programming is something 3rd world starving people do for $0.50/day, we need a new word.

I better get back to mashing, hahahahahah

Re:

[Phybersyk0]

Actually "mashup" is about 5 years old give or take, it comes from the underground music scene where beat-matching software is used to blend together two (or more) songs together that would not ordinarily fit.

For example: (and I'm serious here) Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" + Destiny's Child's "Bootylicious" = "Smells Like Teen Booty"

Some rather high-profile works have been created using the technique, The Beatles vs Jay-Z, Beatles vs. Beachboys (Beachles) Beatles vs. Beastie Boys (Beastles), Dean Gra

Re:

[Bwerf]

Awesome, feeding that to my perl interpreter and now I can suddenly use my wiimote to control my Roomba.

Re:

[novus ordo]

A visual depiction of a mashup [imageshack.us].

Lazerzzzz

[jrmiller84]

Too bad it's still only a vacuum cleaner... It needs frickin' laser beams... Oh wait, it uses IR? Damnit...

Re:

[jpardey]

I hope that was purposeful. An infrared transmitter is not usually a laser, just an LED below the visible light spectrum.

Bluetooth

[jrmiller84]

Wait a second, I didn't realize that the Wiimote used bluetooth and that the output could be captured. How does the light sensing bar connect to the Wii(I don't own one yet. Yes I know, I'm sad too)? If it can be connected to a computer (and I'm sure some modder will figure it out), the implications could be huge. Now your computer is a Wiiputer. You could use the wiimote for all of your favorite games. But I bet all of you already knew that.

Re:

[Gotung]

The sensor bar is kind of confusingly named. The bar itself doesn't actually sense anything. It just has 2 ir emitters, the same type in your average tv remote. The wiimote picks up the signals from the emitters to find out where it is in relation to your TV. People have reportedly been successful in substituting 2 candles for the "sensor" bar. The bar does plug into the nintendo, but since the wire simple provides power, some minor hackery will allow you to plug it into an ordinary wall socket.

Be glad there's no challenge/response

[Myria]

Be glad that Nintendo didn't go the route of Microsoft and do a challenge-response to authenticate the console to the controller and the controller to the console.

Melissa

Prediction complete!

[RyoShin]

I suggested this very thing two weeks ago. [slashdot.org]

Do not understand this new word "mashup"

[AmiMoJo]

Seriously, this word does not make sense, at least in this context. I am not trying to troll, but I would appreciate it if someone could explain it's exact meaning.

In English (okay, British/standard English) "mash" means to scramble or grind something, e.g. mashed potato or papier mache. In the context of technology, it makes no sense as generally mashing implies that the thing being mashed becomes paste like, or mashed. To describe a car as mashed, is to imply it has been crushed and bent out of shape to t

Re:

[WilliamCotton]

Hopelessly out of touch guy in the 1950s:

"Seriously, this term "rock and roll" just doesn't make any sense.

In English "rock" refers to either an action of rocking back and forth or a relatively hard, naturally formed mineral or petrified matter. The term "roll" refers to either an action of turning around or revolving on or as if on an axis or a small loaf of bread served with dinner. I just don't see how either of these words have anything to do with a current trend (which will no doubt not be around for v

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

"Rock and roll" makes perfect sense, and it's evolution is well documented (see Wikipedia, for example). It makes good sense in the context. "Mash-up" seems to have come from no-where, and makes no sense at all in this context. It seems to be describing the combining of technologies in ways previously not intended, basically a form of hacking. Why not then call it a hack, as would have been the case six months ago?

I suppose all you can say in the end is that American English is very different from standard

I know what its for

[bigsam411]

They designed this so that when people throw their Wiimotes at televisions while playing Wii Sports, the Roomba will go clean up the glass shards.

Wii remote - Wii - games = WiiRoomba

[Anonymous Coward]

This is what happens when you buy only the controller without the console & games.

Great...

[JumperCable]

Now everybody is going to get excited about things that they can control with their "Wii".

And here's the source code in BASIC

[72beetle]

10 print "Use the fucking Roomba's remote. IT ALREADY HAS ONE!"
20 goto 10
30 end

I still prefer the roomba controlled by a MacBook

[jocknerd]

http://hackingroomba.com/projects/roomba-tilt-cont rol-with-macbook-perl/ [hackingroomba.com]

I've got a similar hack

[sdcharle]

I attached a handle to my roomba so I can control it by hand.

Re:

[__aaclcg7560]

Why would a python swallow one of those things?

Re:

[Geoffreyerffoeg]

I have two words for you.

Turing completeness.

Re:Perl vs. Python?

[grumbel]

For those interested, the WiiLi.org Wiki is full of Wiimote examples using Python, just takes a handfull lines of code to get started with the Wiimote, its really easy.

Re:

[Da_Weasel]

Sooo ummm....he used the Wii Remote Control to remote control something else? How innovative! *sigh*

Re:

[markana]

No, that's a Segway. They were a big thing back in 2003 or so...

Re:

[Cheapy]

penis squared = Natalie Portman? Amazing!

Re:

[geminidomino]

Assuming you were going for the way-overdone "Wii means genitals!" joke, you still fail basic algebra.

if wii = penis and
wii + penis = Natalie Portman,
then
2(penis) = Natalie Portman

Unless of course, you were going for something like "wii = (penis*penis)-penis"...

Re:

[Megane]

No hot grits or petrification in your equation? You fail it!