[PD] Pure Data and Robotics

[Martin Peach]

Jonathan Goodwin wrote:

>So I was just reading an article in this month's Wired Magazine about the
>new version of Lego's Mindstorms, and it got me thinking...
>
>What is Pure Data's potential for use Robotics and have people done anything
>robot-like with it in the past.
>
>  
>
I've been helping Bill Vorn (http://www.billvorn.com) with his robotic 
art for the past few years. We mostly use Max patches to control the 
robots and read their sensors, but I use Pure Data in the workshop. At 
first we used MIDI and BASIC Stamps, then started using PICs for sensor 
interfaces and Rabbits (the RCM3700 has ethernet on board) to control 
relays and lights, communicating using OSC. Max/MSP or PD can also 
handle the sound generation.

>I've used the HID external to allow the input of hardware signals into PD,
>but is there even any way of getting a non audio/video signal out of it?
>
>  
>
PD and Max seem designed for MIDI. Now there are OSC objects, also 
serial (RS232); you can send and receive any kind of message over 
ethernet using [netsend] and [netreceive].

Martin