Embedded Development and Wireless Robotic Communication

Developing a basic robot with embedded technology is not as difficult as it once was. There are a number of tutorials available online, which teach how to build such a robot. But putting a wireless communication device on the robot is another matter altogether. Wireless communication is important, because then you can perform debugging, control and monitoring, wirelessly.

ZigBee can be a starting point if you want to put a wireless system on your robot. The system is open source and used worldwide and is even being applied to the Internet of Things. ZigBee is backed-up by the ZigBee Alliance, a 400 member non-profit association that has driven the development of the ZigBee standard for a number of years.

Developing software for robots is not easy. A single robot needs several actuators, sensors and software modules. Usually, the embedded software developed for robots are monolithic because they can solve only a single problem. Moreover, they are created for particular platforms.

For special needs, you will have to write the code from scratch. If you are lucky, you may find relevant open source code online but in robotics, it will be difficult to find such code, because it is such a niche sector. You will also need a ASOC (Application Specific Operating System) to coordinate and schedule the robotic tasks. So it makes a lot of sense to get a good embedded developer on board. He/she can shed more light on such requirements.