discussion about learning qbo from scratch

http://openqbo.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=14&t=867

Hello all

I present myself : Vincent. (42 yo)
I live in France, and I'd like to order a QBO.
Before I had a ROVIO, then BIOLOID Premium.
My programming level is non-existent, I do not know Linux, much less ROS.
For infos, I am self-taught and handyman.

Do you think this kit can suit me?
At this price, I wouldn't be wrong.
I'd like to buy any kit. The assembly does not scare me.

What should I learn? using Linux? ROS? VBasic? C? others...?

What are all the possibilities that can do the robot?
- Learn and recognize faces, voices, objects, colors, words / phrases
- Move alone via sensors and / or stereoscopic video
- Discuss? Really ???
- Serve as a warning presence and notify mails
- Manage my home automation
- Get information on the internet and talk ?
more ?

I'm a bit scared, because this forum seems to turn very slowly, and without it, I won't be able to progress alone. I'm sure ! I'm really a newbie, with a lot of ideas, but without any programming notion.

OpenQbo Member

Posts: 547
Joined: Fri Nov 18, 2011 9:54 am
Location: Elche - Spain

Posted: Sat Jan 18, 2014 7:52 pm

Hello Vincent. Welcome to the community.

If you're a handyman I recommend the kit. You'll spend many hours entertaining and if you have any questions with the Assembly, here we help you in everything you need.
The total cost of all parts you need to complete the robot, including the price of the kit, can be 2000 euros.

Currently, the robot detects faces and recognizes people who have previously been trained their faces. As well as different objects. You can move it away with the computer keyboard and display images from its cameras on the monitor or through an application for your smartphone android.
It moves autonomously by the house, avoiding obstacles and recognizing the faces of the people.
You can interact by voice, both in English and in Spanish, and recognizes many phrases.
I myself have extended recognition in Spanish with 300 new phrases that recognize, so you can chat with the robot and you respond in a logical manner.

Using the Xtion Pro Live from Asus, can generate your House for autonomous navigation maps and these maps serve to set automatic routes to go from a room, to another that is at the other end of your House, looking objects (for this you have to know programming).

It is recommended that you have some basic knowledge of Linux, since that is the operating system that uses Qbo, specifically UBUNTU. But Ubuntu is only a stand where sits the real operating system for robotics, which is ROS.
Programming in ROS, it can be done in several different languages, C++, or Python, but for beginners, ROS is a bit difficult to digest.

A description of what have I done now makes the robot.
Good thing about Qbo is that it is a standard platform for learning in robotics.
I am a beginner in programming, but Qbo has so many fields where you can develop your knowledge, that even without knowing programming can make things interesting, as in the field of voice recognition, for example.

I hope these lines you serve to reflect in your decision.