The robot has something of a major overhaul since the initial build a few years ago, all the digital technology has been changed, the wheels have changed, and the software has had major rewrites.

The robot now has a dual core Atom based motherboard which is much more powerful than the old VIA EPIA. While I am currently using a SATA laptop disk drive for development, I intend to put the CF disk back when it is stable. I've upgraded the Linux distribution to Ubuntu LTS 10.04 from an ancient Slackware version. I changed the wheels to be something less ridiculous than the original kid toy wheels. I even added a few more USB cameras to start with some serious vision work.

I've updated the pictures and intend on getting some video of the robot in motion.

The new hardware is cool. Previously with the EPIA motherboard, you didn't get the feeling you could actually do a lot with the system. The USB hardware seemed flaky and the CPU was dreadfully underpowered. While you had motor control and you could do some basic stuff, you probably would have had to add another computer to do anything more serious. This was expected, after all, the price point was $500 and the system was intended as a starting point.

Even though the price is still below $500 ($377 for the base and $110 for additional hardware), I am more impressed with it as a platform. Before it was passable. The Atom processor isn't a powerhouse, but 64bit dual core really provides a LOT more overhead in the computational space and it is still using the 70watt ATX power supply.