Open Automation Project

The objective is to use readily available "off-the-shelf" low-cost consumer components where possible, and to design electronic subsystems where such components are either not readily available or are too expensive. In terms of affordability, the overall goal is to design a robot that can be made for around the price of a PC (US$1,500 to $2,000 is the target, but the actual cost of building a robot can vary greatly depending on how many of the electromechanical components are made in your own workshop versus purchased pre-fabricated).

Overview

The block diagram below identifies the major hardware components that comprise the robot and its accompanying docking station. The cyan coloured blocks represent custom electronic circuits - all microcontroller based with firmware - that have been developed within the scope of this project.

Operating System

The free and open GNU/Linux operating system has been chosen as the foundation for the software in this project. Kernel and device-driver source code is readily available and well supported by the developer community.

Mainboard

The requirements of the mainboard are:

• at least two firewire ports
• at least two serial ports
• at least two USB ports
• I²C port (optional)...

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