Page 84 - Hacking Roomba

Building a Roomba chapter

Bluetooth Interface

lthough the serial tether is eminently useful and will constantly be
used while debugging, it’s not as magical as having a totally wireless
Aconnection to the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner. With a small,
discreet wireless adapter, Roomba appears to be functioning entirely on its
own, while still being able to call upon the vast resources of a full-blown
desktop PC. in this chapter

Wireless communication is becoming more pervasive every day. In your About Bluetooth
house you probably have a dozen devices that have computers in them and
some sort of wireless digital communication. You may be thinking of just
the WiFi devices you have, but those are only the most obvious devices. Build a Bluetooth
Don’t forget the wireless mouse or keyboard you might have. And what Roomba adapter
about your cell phone or mobile phone, or the infrared remote controls that
talk to your TV and stereo? Or the RF remote controls for the garage door Set up Bluetooth
opener or ceiling fan? All of these devices contain tiny computers that talk serial ports
to other tiny computers. Even Roomba has a wireless communications
device in the form of its infrared remote control sensor.
Design the
As computational hardware becomes smaller and cheaper, portable objects RoombaComm API
that were previously dumb begin to get smarter. And when they’re smart
and portable, wirelessly connecting them inevitably follows. Increasingly,
things we never considered as having a computer or needing to be networked
are becoming that way. The dull, static objects of our lives are becoming
smart and dynamic. In the past 20 years, the vacuum cleaner has gone from
a simple bag with electric motor to a small industrial robot with more com-
puting power than the original PC. Imagine what the next 20 years will
bring. First objects become smart; then they start talking to each other.
This chapter demonstrates one path to that next stage by adding a Bluetooth
interface to Roomba. Bluetooth is one wireless protocol out of many. You
will use it here because the rise of built-in Bluetooth technology in new
laptops has resulted in cheap (enough) Bluetooth-to-serial adapters.

Alternatives

As with the RS-232 serial adapter, RoombaDevTools.com has made a
work-alike of the circuit presented here, called RooTooth (see Figure 4-1).
If you’re anxious to get your Roomba working wirelessly, RooTooth does