The Re-Mote is a new product by FAST Robotics. With the Re-Mote, you can trade out your expensive R/C Transmitter and use your own USB Controllers to control your Robot. The Re-Mote is fully MAVLink compatible, XBee compatible and is powered by 2 AA Batteries for up to 2 hours of use.
The way the Re-Mote works is that you hook up your USB Controller (or 2) to the Re-Mote, use the Configuration GUI to tell the Re-Mote how to interpret commands, such as button pushes and axis movements to relate to MAVLink commands to your UAV. For each USB Controller(s) and Robot, the GUI makes what we call a User Profile. After you finish making this Profile Bucket File you can download directly to the Re-Mote, download to a Micro-SD Card on the Re-Mote or save this File for later.
When you are ready to use your Robot, no need to bring your computer! Connect your USB Controller to the Re-Mote (which powers your USB Controllers), install your own XBee compatible Radio, select which User Profile to use and you are ready to go!
Current Status: As of 7-July-2012, we have performed the following work:
-Neat Feature Animation Video!
-Physical housing mostly complete.
-Critical code has been developed, which includes developing/testing for USB Controllers and sending data via MAVLink to QGroundControl.
-Configuration GUI has been started.
Work to be completed:
-Re-Mote Schematic and PCB Design
-Bill Of Materials
We are working very hard on this and hope to put on Kickstarter within 1 month. For now, we are anticipating an assembled Re-Mote (RF Radio not included) to cost about $65 on Kickstarter and $75 retail. These numbers are a work in progress so they may go up or down.
All of our code, designs, schematics and everything is open-source. As the Re-Mote is still a work in progress some of the information here is a little sparse, but here are some links:
Re-Mote Git Hub Repository
Re-Mote Wiki
Comments
Thanks for the comments everyone!
@John Moore
Good question. No, this would not require a separate XBee on your UAV. We will be developing code that you could use on an APM (as soon as I get mine...) but the code involved would be fairly simplistic so you could use any other controller you like as long as it talks MAVLink.
@Jack Crossfire
Thanks for the comment! Yes, it is really about 10% total. But you are right, we may push the full retail price up some. But the Kickstarter price will more than likely stay close to $65. And yes, we both have day jobs :)
David Gitz
Sounds interesting. Would this need a separate XBee for control or could it be used with an existing telemetry XBee with APM?
@Jack, Kickstarter charges 5%, and Amazon Payments charges another 3%-5%, depending on the total amount.
http://www.kickstarter.com/help/faq/creators#WhatFeesDoesKickChar
Looks awesome. Good Luck!
That's a really low price, for the kind of volume that kickstarter can generate on such a niche product. There's either a day job or another investor paying the rent. 20% goes to kickstarter & credit card fees, so it's a $51 linux board.
@David,
Sounds like a PCTx without needing the PC. Go for it!
Regards,
TCIII