My interest in the Raspberry Pi concerns its use as robot brains. I made the above chart to help me better understand where the Raspberry Robotics development process is heading.

I’ll need an IDE on my laptop/desktop which can transfer files from the online community and my computer(s) to the Raspberry Pi without the need of having to find a spare monitor and keyboard for the Pi. A pre-loaded SD card with a robotics-oriented operation system would make configuration a lot easier.

The Arduino/ATMega could serve as an interface between the Pi and the sensors and actuators, taking advantage of the great pre-existing library of interface ‘sketches’ that already exist for the Arduino. Audio/Visual will connect directly with the Pi, and the IDE will need to pipe in the vision and sound for development and troubleshooting.

From what I’ve read about it so far, the Raspberry Pi is destined for great things robot-wise. It appears to have enough onboard processing power to perform visual pattern recognition and object manipulation, which could mean that soon we’ll be seeing Raspberry Robots setting the table, taking out the garbage, shoveling the snow, performing brain surgery, and driving trucks. Well, maybe not driving trucks.

Even the simplest tasks will require lines and lines of programming, requiring a vibrant online community for me to copy and paste stuff from.

Happy New Year, which for me will looks like it will be the Year of the Raspberry Robot.