WiFi Robocam: Report

Srimukha Karantha B
1MS11EC111

Tilak D
1MS11EC0117

Vishal Upadhayay
1MS11EC127

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology, Bangalore-560054

AbstractA Wi-Fi enabled robot truly embarks and reinstates

the technology by taking it to new level of sophistication.
Raspberry PI and WiFi Router are used to build RoboCam,
which is a WiFi-enabled Surveillance Robot. The RoboCam can
be navigated from a remote location, from a web browser over
the Internet. Webiopi and Javascript are used to build this
application. Given that unmanned surveillance systems are a
rapidly growing industry, this project is a system based around
Android phones that could meet the basic requirements for
a mobile surveillance system, while minimizing cost and user
training. Through the development of this surveillance platform,
the group members will be able to simultaneously gain experience
with application development, robotics, and networking.
Index TermsUnmanned Ground Vehicles, Remote surveillance, Networking

I. I NTRODUCTION
WiFiRoboCam is a wirelessly controlled robot. This robot
uses a USB-camera, various sensors and is controlled with a
computer and a Raspberry Pi over WiFi. With WiFi RoBoCam
it is possible to drive around the house (or any other place
with WiFi) from anywhere on the world while sitting behind
the laptop. It sends movement commands to the WiFi shield
through a socket connection. The Raspberry Pi is the processing and controlling board that is used to control the motors,
sensors, camera, etc. The basic communication diagram is as
shown in Fig. 1.
From Fig. 1 its quite evident that control over the Robot can
be dictated using a Custom made Web page and Robot can be
banked forth, backward, left and right respectively. When the
designated Web address is entered into the web browser of the
computing device, the web page for stipulated controls of the

Robot is actuated and now visible on the computing device.

When clicked on the respective direction controls for the
Robot on the webpage, the subsequent packets are generated.
These packets at the transmitter end via Internet gets into
the Router at the Receiver end and eventually gets dumped
into the raspberry pi and specified directions are subsequently
assumed.
A. Features
The robot has the following functionalities:
Controllable via Internet from a browser
Precision control with adjustable motor speeds
A tillable wireless camera
Suspended bumper to protect against collisions
GUI and re-programmable software
Large operating range through added antennas
II. F EW E XISTING P ROJECTS
A. Wifi Robot
This robot was built by our seniors. Anyone can control
this robot from any laptop over wifi and Internet. The Programming is done in LabVIEW. The NI Wireless Module
with c series module is used to control the robot. The control
from computer keyboard is used. The robot is stiff and not
vulnerable to external climate.
Programming in NI LabVIEW is as easy as drawing block
diagrams
Large range WSN C series Network Gateway device
Cheap design, Stiff chassis, and simple
B. RoboCam WiFi Robot
This robot was built by students of ECE. Anyone can
control this robot from any laptop over wifi and internet.
This robot can making snapshots and live video streaming,
its also provided with temperature sensor that sends readings
every 1 second and the controlling is performed by a software

Fig. 1. Communication diagram

Fig. 2. Wifi RoboCam

that manages all controlling processes needed. The robot is

fabricated using aluminum chassis making it light and stiff.
Programming was done in microC Pro and Visual Basic and
Simulation using PROTEUS ISIS. These softwares are highly
feasible to our project. it also had a Rotating wireless camera.

C. Wlan Robot

This robot is controlled over wifi and Internet. This robot

can make snapshots and live video streaming, its also provided
with robotic arm that performs small taks and the controlling is
performed by a software that manages all controlling processes
needed. It has a Wireless IP camera to monitor/patrol remotely,
and Stiff design, powerful,with Easy to use GUI.
We are aiming to build a wireless controlled robot that can
be accessed by smart phones through Internet and is used for
remote surveillance.
III. ROBOT D ESIGN
The Robot design is a tough process and involves design
thinking principles. Planning, Idealization, and prototyping are
the basic steps. The robot has the following:
1) Raspberry pi
2) Wi-Fi Module
3) Sensors
4) Motors
5) Camera

Based on the Broadcom BCM2835 system on a chip

(SoC)
SoC includes a 32-bit ARM1176JZFS processor
Clocked at 700MHz, However we can overclock it.
Has a videocore IV GPU.
Powered by a 5V micro USB AC charger.
2 USB Ports, 1 HDMI Port, 1 Ethernet Port(RJ 45),1
AUX, 1 SD card(Where OS is installed),26 GPIO Pins
RAM: 512MB

B. Camera Module
Camera module that is used here is 0.3MP CSI camera(TAG). Raspberry Pi with an Whezzy Raspbian installed
is needed to access the camera and software to be used
is Motion. The Motion software detects motion and takes
snapshots of detected motion images. Also live video feedback
is binded on to http port. Thus remote surveillance is achieved
using these softwares and scripts.
C. Wifi Module
The wifi module will be based on TP LINK TLWR740N router. The router supports Wireless Standards:IEEE
802.11n/g/b at Frequency Band: 2.4GHz. The Data Security:
64/128-bit is used with WEP Encryption. Radio Channel: 1
14 channels.

A. Raspberry Pi

D. Motors

The Raspberry Pi is a low cost, credit-card sized computer

that plugs into a computer monitor or TV, and uses a standard
keyboard and mouse. It is a capable little device that enables
people of all ages to explore computing, and to learn how
to program in languages like Scratch and Python. Its capable
of doing everything that a desktop computer can do, from
browsing the Internet and playing high-definition video, to
making spreadsheets, word-processing, and playing games.
The Raspberry Pi has the ability to interact with the outside
world, and has been used in a wide array of digital maker
projects, from music machines and parent detectors to weather
stations and tweeting birdhouses with infra-red cameras.
We are using Raspberry PI Model-B. the Operating System
is Linux based debian distros, NOOBS. Desktop manager
used are LXDM, lightdm. GUI in Debian based distros can
be obtained by typing STARTX command. Putty is used under
windows environment to remotely connect it via SSH on Port
no 22. Putty lands us on Linux terminal with root access.
Browser Used in NOOBS is epiphany-browser.

We are using two 200Rpm DC Motors. Can be Customized

for Maximum Speed, Winding Current, Shaft Options. The
motor driver we use is H-BRIDGE which provides bidirectional control of DC motors.

Fig. 4. DC Motor

Fig. 5. H bridge

E. Sensors

Fig. 3. Raspberry PI

The most important part of any robotic system. Resembles

the senses of our body. Continuously monitors different external factors and keeps the system notified about it. The changes
of the system are given as electrical signals to the robotic
system. Currently we have not interfaced any sensors.

IV. S OFTWARE
We will be working on various platforms including python,
java, javascript, etc on linux and windows based systems. We
are creating an User interface where we can control the robot.
WebIOPi includes an HTTP server that provides both HTML
resources and a REST API to control things on Raspberry pi.
The browser will first load a HTML file, then the included
Javascript will make Asynchronous calls to the REST API
to control and update the UI. This method is very efficient,
because it dont need to refresh and download the whole page.

Fig. 6. Webiopi interface

A. SSH Raspberry Pi
Step 1: Enable ssh on Raspberry Pi
Step 2: Install Putty On PC
Step 2: Run Putty through IP address of PI

B. Webiopi
Through Webiopi app, we can Control, debug, and use the
Pis GPIO, sensors and converters from a web browser or any
app WebIOPi is the perfect Swiss-knife to make connected
things Developed and provided by Eric PTAK (trouch). After
installing Webiopi and Motion and configuring on PI; we can
proceed to next section. First we will edit the motion.conf file
by typing:
$ sudo nano /etc/motion/motion.conf
This is quite a large conf file but the points you need to edit
are:
DAEMON = OFF (change to ON)
Webcam localhost = ON (Change to OFF)
Next we need to enable the Daemon (service):
$ sudo nano /etc/default/motion
start motion daemon = no (change to yes)
Next we will start our webiopi: $ sudo webiopi
And everything gets going. Connect to ip on web browser and
we have the web page. To customize the webiopi script; we
add our html and python script and configure the webiopi.conf
file to run it in custom mode. And hence we can have our
custom web interface. WebIOPi customization is easy but
requires some Javascript and CSS knowledge for the UI. We
can also create our own Python script to change the server
behavior. To connect through internet, we need to install
one more app called as Weaved IOT. The Weaved IoT kit
brings the power of Software Defined Networking (SDN) to
any networked device. The version for Raspberry Pi has five
configurable parameters so we can decide what services we
want to make available remotely.
webSSH
SSH
Web (http) on port 80
WebIOPI
Custom TCP service

Fig. 7. Remote access

Fig. 9. webiopi interface

V. APPLICATIONS
Fig. 8. Remote access

The Wifi Robocam has various applications and some of

them are listed below. However our main objective will be
remote surveillance through smart phones.

1) Wifi RoboCam can be used as third eye for security

purposes in military, in remote areas, hilly areas, highly
hot places,etc
2) It can also be used to spy on enemy, remote paroling
3) It can be helpful in robotics surgery in remote areas
4) It can prove its importance in hazardous places like
nuclear reactors where it can be used for surveillance,
inspection of radiations and carrying out tasks where
humans cant interfere
5) It can also be used in agricultural field for continuous
monitoring of the developing crops,yield, weed incidence
and other vital data for enhancement of production.
6) Remote control from Android or IOS smartphone
7) Autonomous navigation and exploration
8) Mapping and SLAM
9) Road Characterization of digital maps
VI. CONCLUSION

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VII. R EFERENCES
A Wi-Fi Enabled Robot by Mohammed Hisham, Sudhir
V Prabhu, Ashwin Kumar, Manipal Centre for Information Sciences, Manipal University, Manipal, India
Robot control using the wireless communication and the
serial communication by Jong Hoon Ahnn, Master of
Electrical Engineering Program, Cornell University
Design and build a Raspberry Pi robot By Stewart
Watkiss
Real-Time Control of Wi-Fi Surveillance Robot by Poh
Eng Fong, Mohd Amaluddin Yusoff, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Curtin University
http://www.scribd.com/doc/217204849/
Iee-Wifi-Enable-Robot
http://www.jbprojects.net/projects/wifirobot/
http://manipal.net/mdn/tech papers/iee wifi enable
robot.pdf
http://hackedgadgets.com/2013/11/27/wifi-robot/

This project is proved to be a challenging, and rewarding

experience allowing us to gain a breadth of knowledge in both
designing and implementing a robot and android application.
The prototype designed is giving satisfactory results and it
would certainly be a feasible and economical solution to
anyones security and reconnaissance needs.

Fig. 11. Linking Webiopi and python script

Fig. 10. custom gui