Depending on how this is implemented it will require a secure connection with a real certificate. (Not self-signed) and a nginx certificate server/proxy.
Go ahead, I dare you, ask me how I know. 
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IMHO, this should not be a stretch goal, but the actual plan of action.
Correct me if I am wrong, but doesn’t the LIDAR use more power than the Oak-D lite?
Again IMHO, having a “ROS certified” solution based on the GoPiGo-3 would get some attention as it would be a LOT less expensive than any other existing ROS solution out there.
How much - five or six bills with the Oak-D?
I really think it can be put together for less than a grand which would make it a steal.
The only rub is there would have to be a subject matter expert in ROS at MR and they have hesitated to do that.
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This would be a blue-tooth USB dongle on the RPi - direct connection and requires the robot “operator” to be standing near enough to the robot to sense and think for it - ala “Dave’s 1K Run”.
One of the first tests of a ROS robot is usually either “keyboard-teleop” or “joystick-teleop”. The teleop ROS msg sender node can either be:
- on-board the bot
- joystick-teleop node running on the RPi (USB blue-tooth connection to joystick)
- keyboard-teleop node running in command shell on the RPi
(either ssh or via flask/Apache service)
- off-board the bot
- joystick-teleop node running on remote computer somewhere on the same WiFi network
(joystick connected via USB to the remote computer running ROS) - keyboard-teleop node running in command shell on remote computer somewhere on the same WiFi network
- joystick-teleop node running on remote computer somewhere on the same WiFi network
ROS takes care of msg delivery between the teleop node and the robot node, relieving the operator of dealing with network issues.
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That would be wonderful but I believe they do not need an in-house expert.
I was never any good at the business side but I’m going to proffer a WAG of what it takes:
- 160 to 200 hours of their existing “software team”
- 140 to 160 hours of their web developer/marketing team
- 8 to 16 hours of their “hardware specialist”
- 40 hours “kitting”
- 25 LiDAR, cables, mounting plates
- 25 New version Batteries (Uugh, Inflation may have hit these…)
Call it $25K investment for $150k gross revenue on the initial 25 bots at $599 (shipping extra). I would guess a 5 to 15% ROI would be reasonable ($50 to $150 per robot), and here is where the tea leaves really curl - Using the existing Weekly ROS newsletter, and ROS twitter channels I’m going to predict the first 25 bots would sell in 3 months of June 2023 to Aug 2023.
(I really have no idea what the market for this is… perhaps I’m just wishing for a GoPiGo3 success, or perhaps I’m hugely underestimating the ROS2 budget bot “hole”)
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And if we could predict that, we’d play the lottery! (And the horses, and the football pools, and the stock market, and the . . . .)
Right now, ROS is a “happening thing” so, (IMHO), a lower budget entry-level ROS 'bot should have as much of a chance as anything else - especially when you take into account the kind of prices everyone else is getting.
The real place where “the tea-leaves begin to curl” is marketing. If they market it with the boundless enthusiasm that they spent on the original GoPiGo-3, it’s doomed.
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