Self-made telepresence robot for only $ 500

Not so long ago on Habré there was news about a boy who uses a telepresence robot instead of himself at school. The article stated that the robot costs only 3,000 dollars, which is just a miser compared to the average price of such robots. For example, Anybot QB costs about 15 thousand dollars, and the R.BOT system 100 - 3 thousand. However, Johnny Chang Lee, one of the main developers of Kinect, who recently moved from Microsoft to Google, was able to create a telepresence robot for $ 500.



Generally speaking, Johnny Chang Lee is known for his products, the cost of which is surprising. For example, he was able to create quite a quality tripod / stabilizer for the camera, the cost of which is only $ 14. Johnny even created a website for the sale of such stabilizers, selling them for 39.95 cu, but on the same site there is a detailed instruction for creating such a stabilizer.

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In addition, he also created a multi-touch system, which is controlled by the well-known game console Nintendo Wii. The cost of such a system is an order of magnitude lower than analogs produced by various companies.







Well, now Johnny is preoccupied with the high cost of telepresence robots, and created one for only $ 500. Of these, 250 were spent on the purchase of the iRobot Create system - a programmable robot produced by a company that specializes in the production of vacuum cleaning robots and other cleaning equipment. Plus, a certain part of these $ 500 went to buy an inexpensive netbook.







The result was a great telepresence system, which really is the equivalent of some expensive telepresence robots. Of course, this whole system doesn’t look so much, but for $ 500, the best is impossible.



For those who want to do something similar for themselves, then laying out an overview of the creation process and the test of the device itself on Habr, I provide a reference to the detailed description of the creation process.



Via procrastineering