Is there a way to program a robot with python (ex, an electric motor, control it's speed, etc)

[Gabriel Genellina]

En Sun, 08 Jul 2007 21:06:48 -0300, <socialanxiety at gmail.com> escribió:

> in this project, we need something that would basically function as a
> blender. we know we'll need to buy a motor that spins, but what we're
> having trouble with is figuring out how to program it. we want to be
> able to control the speed of the motor. how would we accomplish this?

This is mostly an electronics question. How much power? For small power  
and fine control I'd look for "stepwise motor" on any robotics book; for a  
high power "blender" I think you don't care so much about fine control. In  
any case, it's the available motor which dictates how you can control it.

> i'm new to all of this, so i'm having a hard time wrapping my mind
> around how it'd be possible to program one of those things :\
>
> ex: what if i want the motor to turn for 10 seconds. stop for 5. then
> turn the other direction.

You may write the GUI using python, and the high level controlling API  
too. But you may need to use a PIC or some kind of controller, listening  
for commands from the PC and acting over the motor accordingly.

Picasso: a Python-controlled robot for doing paintings
http://youtube.com/watch?v=PsbKq5Kysj0

-- 
Gabriel Genellina