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PDA 11 5/27/03 8:53 AM Page 211
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Infinitely

Expandable

PDA Robot is a fusion of the latest technologies on all fronts. The way
technology evolves, this may not be true for long. I hope that users
take from this project not only knowledge of the technology, but the
realization that with a little research and a Web browser, users can find
a solution to any problem.

PDA Robot can be easily expanded to use the wide range of add-on
technology available, such as a global positioning system (GPS) card.
This chapter lists a number of cards and pieces of equipment that
could be used with this project, and concludes with a great piece of
equipment used for telesurgery.

Global Positioning System

These devices allow users to get an exact position on where they are
located. This means that users can program PDA Robot to
autonomously go to any location on the earth or navigate with the aid
of a long-range wireless video transmitter anywhere in the city. I will
have to do my own calculations for the moon mission by triangulation
off three transmitter beacons, though. If you buy one, be sure that you
can get the position information through an application programming
interface (API) that the manufacturer provides. I won’t buy one if I
can’t write a program to access the data.

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