Qualcomm is the world leader in smartphone processors, but that doesn’t mean that processors are the only arena it is working in. The company repeatedly tries to reinvent itself in the smartphone arena, which is definitely the reason for its success. The newest offering from Qualcomm is a 3D printable robot that can, using your smartphone accomplish different tasks. Sounds interesting? Read on.
The Qualcomm Snapdragon Micro Rover is an interesting marriage of smartphones and robotics. In fact, beside the prototype robot, you can actually create your own using this project. The prototype looks like one of those cute smartphone stands that you might find in abundance, but it has many hidden capabilities.
The Micro Rover uses an IOIO board as an I/O break out to connect to an Android device. via a Bluetooth or other Android accessories. It functions with the help of Android APIs. Developers can use a smartphone as the primary device powering it. In addition to the phone, it will need 5 AA batteries to work. You can also use rechargeable batteries.
So basically you can make it do different things and using the smartphone as the primary device, you can tell it perform various functions, for e.g. Provide you with camera coverage of each room using the smartphone camera at just one command. This project is currently in nascent stages, but there are lots of possibilities just like the one I mentioned.
