Projects: ShakerRacer

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ShakerRacer: a natural way to control a car — with the acceleration sensor

ShakerRacer does not need this additional layer and allows you to control an RC car directly through your movements — by using the acceleration sensor of your mobile phone. It works in a very intuitive way: just tilt your phone in the direction you want to drive. That's it!

The car that we used is based on a standard €90 RC car bought from a toy shop. We modded it to accept Bluetooth instead of the proprietary wireless module that it was shipped with. A small microcontroller and a Bluetooth module replace the original wireless components. On the side of the mobile phone, a Python script translates the input of the acceleration sensor to commands that the microcontroller can understand in order to manage the steering servo as well as the main motor.

It turned out that this is a very intuitive and natural way to control the car. You do not need any practice as the concept can be understood instantly. So there's nothing that can block your way to fun!

Quick Facts

A Python application connects via Bluetooth to a modded RC car.

Compatibility

• S60 3.x with acceleration sensors
  e.g. Nokia 5500 Sport, N93i, N95, N82, ...
• Maturity level:
    Full project

Developed by

• Andreas Jakl (Software)
• Stephan Selinger (Hardware)

Published

• November 2007

Price

• Freeware

More Information

• High quality video download and additional screenshots and pictures.
• ShakerRacer Article: "ShakerRacer: Real RC car controlled with the N95 acceleration sensor" (originally published at the Forum Nokia Blogs)
• ShakerRacer Article #2 "ShakerRacer is now Open Source!" (originally published at the Forum Nokia Blogs)
• Please contact the developers for more information.

Download

• Documentation only (English)
• Source code and documentation (v1.5, English)

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