Drive r/c car from PC

[ZANDOR]

More :spam

YEP :spam after :spam after :spam

 

[Lessen]

To be honest, I thought of this as well quite a while ago.. that's how I found that website. Personally, I think it's a good idea if utilized at it's full potential. The thing is.. what it really boils down to is that it has more in common with video gaming than r/c. A lot of us enjoy racing sims like the Gran Turismo series and even though you can't "feel" the car, after some practice you get a good idea of what it can and can't do. This would be no different. It would really just be a video game that was actually happening in the real world rather than solely on a screen. Unfortunately, I believe that it won't be utilized to it's potential becase it isn't practical. What I mean is that considering the standards that are in place in the r/c world there is no "need" for it. Standards such as common vehicle speeds and track sizes. Racers have gotten used to the speeds that our vehicles are capable of. The same goes for racetracks, they are designed from the idea that the driver doesn't move. IMO, remote video radio control would only be necessary in a vehicle that is simply too fast to reasonably control using current standards being driven on a track that was so large that it would impossible for a driver to even see where they were going. Now THAT would be cool.

 

[Greyhound]

I see it more in the plane and heli. Things like learn to fly without going to the airport by the time you taking real lesson with real plane, it would take less to learn (less money to spend). you can use it for air race, air combat or what ever that you wouldn't risk your life doing it for fun. for cars, I see mini F1, drag race more like road car not bashing.

 

[RoboHack]

Guys, I want to make something clear. I in no way intend for this to replace the way we normally race. It was just an example use for the PCTx. The point is to allow for computer control of r/c electronics. I originally created it for robotics purposes.

It’s really just a tool; it helps you complete your task. If your task is remote driving...this device will help you do it. It doesn't have to be used for that purpose but since this is primarily a racing forum I thought I would use an example that you might relate to that would maybe spark an old idea you once had but could not complete because you had no way to obtain computer control of your transmitter.

I use a wireless camera in a few of my examples for a few reasons. 1. Wireless cameras can be purchased on the cheap ($50). 2. Vision systems provide an immense amount of data feedback very quickly. Computers and vision systems are evolving very rapidly...one day some nice programmer might create an application to recognize objects just as easily as you and me. You say it’s hard to drive in this fashion but maybe the computer could assist you? 3. Cameras really are universal sensors. If object recognition became powerful enough you would be able to sense things like heat, cold, position, speed. How? Well if the camera sees fire, we know it’s hot. If there is snow, it can probably guess its cold. Position...well...if everything is upside down then we know which way is up. This is an *extreme* example so take it lightly, computers are years off from doing image processing like we can.

There are other wireless sensors but I have personally not used them. I’ve seen a wireless accelerometer for example.