I read:

What is Pure Data's potential for use Robotics

runs on small embedded devices free access to source makes it easy to extend according to your needs free access to source makes it easy to cut out all the stuff you don't need runs on various operating systems is easy enough to program, the development process is well suited for gradual improvements/adjustments

and have people done anything robot-like with it in the past.

I guess quite a few people have done things like that. Personally have never used it for an autonomous robot one of my favorites is maybe iem's klavierautomat: http://puredata.info/community/projects/convention04/chronik/saturday/photo_...

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?

comport lp dmx ...

many more can be [ab]used, and in a typical embedded system you would probably write your own extern to interface with the specific hardware anyway.

regards,

x

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