Updated RoboSapien IR Control – Arduino

There is a brilliant hack for these http://playground.arduino.cc/Main/RoboSapienIR.  I wired this up – but I ended cutting up the poor thing – so I thought I could try it with an IR transmitter instead to do the same thing.  Also means you dont have to ruin your soldering iron punching a hole through the body 🙂

I decided to use the Ken Shirriff IR library.  Its  work of genius.

http://www.righto.com/2009/08/multi-protocol-infrared-remote-library.html

But it didnt have one for Robosapien. The way it works is pretty cool – but you need a couple of days hack time to figure it out.  The codes from the sapien controller seemed to be in single bytes – so with some effort I managed to get it to transmit those codes.  I tried it on 6 sapiens I bought for a school project.

I updated three of the library files.  I have not included the whole library – just the updated files – so best way is to downloaded Ken’s library and then just replace with these files here

You’ll need an IR Transmitter with an Arduino board.  Something like this http://emartee.com/product/42200/  This project looks like the sort of thing you want to do: http://jerrylparker.com/?p=94

Wire it up with Pin 3 and make sure you hold the transmitter close to the Robots head.  These arduino ones dont have much power and I found the transmitter needed to be within 10-15cm.  However the idea is to be able to replace the onboard controller with Arduino – so you can still do that and without hacking up the toy.

I mapped out the buttons to codes – so in the Arduino sketch – use commands like  irsend.sendRSV1(142);  The sketch is at the bottom.  Its pretty simple.  I had done two types – ones where you have a set sequence.  The other was to initiate the sequence from a PC.  Hence the Serial.read().  I use Processing for that stuff – its amazing as well.

This was done in Excel – which you can download here.  This is the simple pasted version.

 

Button	Controller	Function	Presses	Arduino Code
12	Red	Turn Right	1	128
1	Red	Right Arm Up	2	129
4	Red	Right Arm Out	2	130
5	Red	Tilt Body right	1	131
2	Red	Right Arm Down	2	132
3	Red	Right Arm In	2	133
11	Red	Walk Forward	2	134
15	Red	Walk Backwards	2	135
14	Red	Turn Left	1	136
6	Red	Left Arm Up	2	137
9	Red	Left Arm Out	2	138
10	Red	Tilt Body Right	1	139
7	Red	Left Arm Down	2	140
8	Red	Left Arm In	2	141
13	Red	Stop	1	142
19	Red	Master Command Program	1	144
20	Red	Program Play	1	145
16	Red	Right Sensor Program	1	146
18	Red	Left Sensor Program	1	147
17	Red	Sonic Sensor Program	1	148
12	Green	Right Turn Step	1	160
1	Green	Right Hand Thump	1	161
4	Green	Right Hand Throw	1	162
5	Green	Sleep	1	163
2	Green	Right Hand Pickup	1	164
3	Green	Lean Backward	1	165
11	Green	Forward Step	1	166
15	Green	Backward Step	1	167
14	Green	Left Turn Step	1	168
6	Green	Left Hand thump	1	169
9	Green	Left hand Throw	1	170
10	Green	Listen	1	171
7	Green	Left Hand Pickup	1	172
8	Green	Lean Forward	1	173
13	Green	Reset	1	174
19	Green	Master Command Program	1	176
20	Green	Wake Up	1	177
16	Green	Right Sensor Program Execute	1	178
18	Green	Left Sensor Program Execute	1	179
17	Green	Sonic Sensor Program Execute	1	180
12	Orange	Right Hand Strike 3	1	192
1	Orange	Right Hand Sweep	1	193
4	Orange	Burp	1	194
5	Orange	Right Hand Strike	1	195
2	Orange	High 5	1	196
3	Orange	Right Hand Strike	1	197
11	Orange	Bulldozer	1	198
15	Orange	Oops	1	199
14	Orange	Left Hand Strike 3	1	200
6	Orange	Left Hand Sweep	1	201
9	Orange	Whistle	1	202
10	Orange	Left Hand Strike	1	203
7	Orange	Talk Back	1	204
8	Orange	Left Hand Strike	1	205
13	Orange	Roar	1	206
19	Orange	All Demo	1	208
20	Orange	Power Off	1	209
16	Orange	Demo 1	1	210
18	Orange	Demo 2	1	211
17	Orange	Dance Demo	1	212

/*

Based on IRSend demo from ken Shirriffs library - this sends simple commands to a RoboSapien V1 using
and IR Transmitter with Arduino

*/

#include <IRremote.h>

IRsend irsend;
IRrecv irrecv(11);

void setup()
{
Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {

irsend.sendRSV1(142);
delay(1000);

if (Serial.read() != -1) {

Serial.println("started");
irsend.sendRSV1(129);
irsend.sendRSV1(199);

/*
irsend.sendRSV1(129);
irsend.sendRSV1(129);
delay(1000);
irsend.sendRSV1(169);
delay(2000);
irsend.sendRSV1(162);
delay(2000);
irsend.sendRSV1(173);
delay(2000);
irsend.sendRSV1(196);
delay(2000);
irsend.sendRSV1(206);
delay(2000);
irsend.sendRSV1(199);
delay(2000);
Serial.println("Done");
*/

}

}