Mindboards

Test your NXT robot driving skills at the new MoonBase Lego! This interactive online game lets users from around the world log-in and remote drive our NXT rover on a simulated Lunar Landscape. The MoonBase Lego Experience also includes videos about robots, space exploration, and the Google Lunar X-Prize. MoonBase Lego is just recently launched in an ever evolving Beta phase, leave us a comment in the guestbook on how you like the site and what we can do to make it better. More to come soon at LegoAces.org with full details on implimenting yoru own remote driving platforms so you can drive your NXT creations from anywhere in the world. Visit http://www.LegoAces.org to test your skills and take the MoonBase Lego driving challenge. Check out this trailer for more information.

Very cool! I gave it a try but I think my 750 ms ping time was working against me as it was nearly impossible to control because of the lag. However, I watched other people drive it and it seemed to work very well. Is the webcam on the rover wired or wireless? How about batteries? How often have you had to change/charge them? Nice work!

nxtreme wrote:Very cool! I gave it a try but I think my 750 ms ping time was working against me as it was nearly impossible to control because of the lag. However, I watched other people drive it and it seemed to work very well. Is the webcam on the rover wired or wireless? How about batteries? How often have you had to change/charge them? Nice work!

The feedback delay time is a problem when remote driving from the moon also. 3 seconds is the time it takes for light to travel to the moon, but it does make it hard to drive. Sometimes we can get the latency down to 2-3 seconds, but unfortunately occasionally the Livestream video feed is as much as 10 seconds which makes it really difficult to figure out whats going on. Keep trying and you'll get good at path planning and seeing ahead just like NASA does on Mars. We are using a hard wired webcam and AC Power adapter, so the system does not need any batteries or recharge stops. In this way, the system is operational 24/7 without much babysitting. There is also a winch on the rover, so when it tips over or crashes (which it often does), users can press the help I'm stuck button to activate the winch and raise the rover into the air to reset on the landing base. We have also run wireless with rechargeables which is fun to put it on the floor and run all around the house checking things out from anywhere in the world, but a bit creepy if someone else logs in a drives into the kitchen. We're still working on up-time, video feed latency and appreciate your feedback to make it even better. Be sure to check out the associated videos that were posted just recently and let us know what you think. We're hoping to spread the word to others that would enjoy stopping by to test their driving skills and learn about robots and the moon. A video explanation of behind teh sceneds is attached below. Enjoy.

Very interesting project.

To embed the YT video you need to use the youtube embed BBcode like this:

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Don't offer to make the code available, just do it! The behind the scenes video is really great. I love what you guys did with the whole system. You should consider using the Dexter Industries WiFi sensor in your next version. I made an Internet controlled NXT a while back with it and it was really fun watching people from all over the world play with it. It wasn't nearly as elaborate as your setup, all they could do with mine is make a light blink and a motor move

You can read about it here: [LINK] and here: [LINK]

Well done guys!

- Xander