EvoSapien.com

[robowolf]

I read that there are extra "beacons" available for Rovio. Why would you need them? Is Rovio limited to only one room without those extra beacons?

Does Rovio have obstacle recognition - go around sofas, etc., by itself?

Does Rovio have an autonomous mode, or must all its moves be programmed?

Thanks

[roschler]

The beacons are only required for Rovio's autonomous navigation (driving itself and self docking). The beacons are used by Rovio to tell where it is in a room and what room it is in. If you are driving Rovio manually, then the only thing you need is a good WiFi signal to send commands and receive audio and video. When driving manually the range and strength of the WiFi signal coming from the charging dock, shown with the WiFi strength indicator on Rovio' web interface, will determine how far you can go throughout your home. If you have good WiFi strength throughout your home, then you can drive Rovio wherever you want inside it (except up stairs).

But if you want Rovio to be able to drive itself throughout your home without your intervention, using a patrol route you created with the browser interface, you will need coverage for every room on the patrol route's path and that coverage will have to be contiguous. By contiguous I mean that there can be no gaps in the patrol route path where there is a room that does not have a beacon. Let's say you have a bedroom that is connected to a hallway which then connects to your dining room. You would have to have a beacon in the bedroom, the hallway, and the dining room if you wanted to create a patrol route for Rovio that navigated that path. If the hallway did not have a beacon, thereby creating an area between the bedroom and the dining room that did not have a beacon, Rovio could not self-navigate a path that involved those three rooms. You could still drive it manually through those 3 rooms, but not create a patrol route through them.

Does that help? Also, welcome to the forum.

[robowolf]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, now I understand why the beacons are needed.

Can the Rovio maneuver around obstacles by itself. Suppose I program a route and then later someone puts an object in the middle of that route. What would Rovio do? Would Rovio get stuck? Do I have to re-program the route?

Also, is there a real autonomus mode, like Roboquad for instance, where Rovio explores a room, then at a set time in its program, returns to its dock?

[roschler]

[robowolf]

Thanks for the detailed replies. I'm looking forward to more reviews when the extra beacons are used.

[alants1]

my rovio battery runs down fast Do the six blue leds and no turn off of the camera do these drain alot?