Building a robot...?

[zorm]

What I highly recommend is putting together a project proposal and see if they'll give you an internship.  I'll clarify.

I found out the Microsoft recruiter for my university is Kim Bremmer (you can find this out at http://www.microsoft.com/college/).  I didn't get the internship I applied for a while ago; however, when I was last on my let's-get-a-Microsoft-gig hype time, I sent her an e-mail asking, essentially, "If I put a project proposal together for something that would add value to a current Microsoft product, could I get an internship working on that project?"  She told me, essentially, "Put the project proposal together and then we'll talk."

That was more work than I had time for at the time, but I am fairly certain that they're not averse to looking into new and creative ways.  Their internships have great package benefits, and who knows?  You could be building a Microsoft battlebot running XP Embedded, while they're paying you to do something that you wanted to do (basically) anyway.  Then you could get parts and stuff for free too, *and* have the advantage of hardware pros like the people at the Xbox 360 division.

Of course, then you trade-off the notion of not being singularly identified with the project.  But it's still not a bad gig.

That might be way more in-depth than you had in mind, but it's probably worth considering. 

Interesting idea but I wouldn't really know where to start since I've never done any sort of real project proposal before. Also I won't be in college until the fall but that shouldn't be a huge deal.

My basic idea for now is to start coding some of the basic software things and to see where I get. I also realized that I have a spare IR mouse that can be used for detecting/verifying movement so I'll add that in too.

On software:
My basic idea is that the robot will run a server which will control everything as well as relay information to the clients. Since I'm using C++ I'm  not really sure of how modular a design I should start with. Perhaps having it load DLLs for all the different sensors and such?

The clients will run on remote PCs and will basically be there for debugging/information purposes. As well as remote control when running in such a mode.

[zorm]

So I started coding and this is as far as I've gotten for now:

[Joe]

Is that from a webcam or an actual robot you're starting to assemble? I love how you aimed it right at the picture, that's pretty cool (I did that once with a 3-plug monitor and a video camera once, it just went blue).

[zorm]

Its from a webcam that will eventually go on my robot. I'm just working on basic software for now.

[Armin]

You should over complicate this robot just for fun. Put it in a sphere that has a gyroscope in it, then put 1 track that goes all the way around the sphere with a wieght on it, then another one that's perpendicular and goes around the sphere as well with another wieght on it, and use that to control the way it moves. That'd be really hawt, and probably isn't *too* compliated.  Only problem with this that I can think of is if the robot is ever on a slant of some sort.

[MyndFyre]

Combined with a gravity sensor, that might be interesting.

[zorm]

So I walked out of my awards ceremony for jrotc last thursday with a check for $300. I also believe I'm in line for another $200 but I don't have cash in hand yet.

So this pushes seed money up in the $500 to $700 range.