Okay, so Android hasn’t advanced that much, but Tim Heath and Ryan Hickman, hobbyists from California, are working to let Android out of your pocket and interact with the world–without you.
The bot they recently finished building — Truckbot — is still relatively simple. It’s got an HTC G1 phone for a brain, riding on top of a chassis with some wheels and treads.  They could have purchased the pricey $175 Oomlout kit, which includes wheels, motors and an Arduino-based brain. Hickman and Heath opted for making their own chassis. Here’s a full list of parts they used:
- $16 Bare bones Arduino
- $3 Micro servo
- $0.25 Hex inverter (handled 3.3v to 5v conversion)
- $4 HTC USB breakout board
- $3 Mini breadboard
- $4 miscellaneous cardboard, strap ties, wires, rear wheel
Total: $30 (plus shipping). To be fair, Heath and Hickman had access to a local workshop, which helped tremendously in terms of having the tools to build some parts, like laser-cutting the cardboard chassis.
Their goal is to utilize every hardware and software component of an Android phone, programming the bot to avoid obstacles, recognize faces and voices, pinpoint its location and go places. An Arduino board, which basically serves as a software-hardware link, is not smart enough to handle that, but an Android phone can.
Over at their blog Cellbots, you can read more about their progress as well as watch a slew of video of G1-bot in action, or you can follow their steps and make your own wheeled Android.
