Introduction: Add Internet-Control to Raspberry Pi Robot Using Runmyrobot.com
How to share your Robot with the world and let other people play with it using runmyrobot.com. This site is beta testing but it should work. If you have any issues, just let us know by posting on the site's Disqus page.
BTW, you'll need to connect your robot to the internet and have a camera so people can see what's going on via video stream. A script will be provided to help with the streaming. You can mount a camera in the room or on the robot, your choice. The robot control will work though socket.io, and code will be provided to help with that.
Step 1: Start a New Robot on Runmyrobot.com
After logging in, visit the New Robot page at runmyrobot.com
Fill in the name of your robot.
Step 2: Link Your Robot So That It Can Be Controlled by Anyone Remotely
Setting Up the Robot Controller
Prerequisite:
Install socketIO-client for python:
pip install -U socketIO-client
Install RunMyRobot controller and video streaming which is on github: https://github.com/runmyrobot/runmyrobot
Use:
git clone https://github.com/runmyrobot/runmyrobot cd runmyrobot
controller.py is set up to use the motor controller from Adafruit and if you have that with motor 1 and 2, it should be able to control the motors immediately. If not you can just use controller.py as an example and do things your own way.
On the computer controlling the robot, run using your Robot ID:
python controller.py <your robot id here>
Now click the left, right, forward, back buttons. They should be sending signals to your controller.py program. You'll see that it's doing something if your a viewing standard out (that is, running it from a command line). And if you have motor attached using Adafruit's motor controller HAT, it should make motor1 and motor2 move.
Step 3: Set Up Video So Others Can See Your Robot
Install ffmpeg on the computer that's sending video. That could be onboard the robot or a camera placed in the room looking at the robot.
On the computer connected to the camera, if you haven't downloaded the code yet, use this:
git clone https://github.com/runmyrobot/runmyrobot
cd runmyrobot
Run using your Camera ID:
python send_video.py <your camera id>
When you run this, you should see video appear on the new robot page.
Step 4: Check to Make Sure Your Robot Is Online
Now, when you visit the main page of runmyrobot.com, you'll see YOUR robot in the drop down list. You can visit that robot, see it's live stream, and control it. Anyone in the world can do the same. Let us know if you have any issues by posting in the Disqus page or here!
