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I have to make a spy robot for a school project (like Rovio). Actually, I don't know how to make it with a command card. And because I know how to make iPhone Apps (I made 7), I thought it would be nice to pilot my robot with my iPhone.

So I want to make a custom app (which will communicate wirelessly with a computer, or an other iPhone app).

I guess I need to use the dock connector (and then a card) to pilot the robot.

My question is, is it possible to make my own "made for iPhone" device, without the MFi licence? Can I make a "custom" dock connector (like this one: http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/ee476/FinalProjects/s2007/awr8_asl45/awr8_asl45/ipodcables.jpg ) and then, a "command" card made by myself.

I saw this intersesting topic:

What's needed to use the Apple Accessory Protocol?

But i want to get video data, audio data from my robot to my iPhone.

It seems a bit difficult but I think it is possible.

If you have any links which could help me, please share!

Thanks a lot for your help!

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Hugo
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  • http://www.cellbots.com/ - here is a link that contains description of few robots controlled by Android phone. Probably this is not what you expect, but maybe it give you some idea how you could do this. – Zuljin Jan 05 '11 at 10:32

2 Answers2

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For short ranges, use Bluetooth or WIFI? Might be slow however (with Bluetooth+video) I don't think you can publish this on the App store however, but I guess you don't plan to.

You could implement a small http server in your robot, and use "HTTP live streaming" to stream live to your iphone device.

Jonny
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As I state in my answer here, you need to be in the Made for iPod (iPhone / iPad) Program to be able to use Apple's proprietary authentication chip. You can't just rig up a dock connector cable to talk with the iPhone hardware. Therefore, this way of controlling your robot would not be practical for you in this project.

For control, you could look at the creative way in which Chris Rojas did his iPhone-driven Arduino tank. Now, he still used a desktop computer as an intermediary when talking to the XBee components, so this isn't entirely off of the iPhone. It also doesn't address getting data back from the device.

A more general purpose solution may be to use an Arduino board using something like this Bonjour library. Hooked to a WiFi transmitter, you might be able to use Bonjour discovery on the iPhone to find and connect to the Arduino board running your robot, then be able to send arbitrary information back and forth over WiFi. This should also have the bandwidth required for video.

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Brad Larson
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