Arena Now Set For the Android vs iPhone Robot Showdown

Submitted by eigenlance on Fri, 06/25/2010 - 2:12am

Android and iPhone devices are trampling on their rivals in the free-for-all battle over smartphone supremacy. But which of these two phones is really the smartest and baddest in the planet? A robot match is about to settle this argument once and for all.

Did I just say a robot match? Yup. It’s actually called a cellphone robot (or cellbot) match.

This August, expect keypads and touchscreens to fly as cellbots go head-to-head in the APPCON 2010 Cellbot Hackathon Challenge.

This year’s APPCON (the Mobile App Developer Conference and Expo), which will be held from August 24-26 2010, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, will be pitting mobile app developers in the Hackathon Challenge.

Participants are supposed to write the necessary code for their favourite smartphone, dunk the device unto a mobile chassis (which will be provided by APPCON) to complete the cellbot, and allow the cellbot to perform a specified, timed task.

Unknown to many, smartphones actually have enough sensors and features which, when attached to a robot chassis and given sufficient programming code, can make up a cellbot. In the APPCON challenge, the cellbots may be controlled via a WiFi or 3G connection, or allowed to run autonomously.

Cellbots have been around for a while now. Initiated by hobbyists determined to “free your cellphone from your pocket”, the original cellbots were driven by the Android OS. iPhone and BlackBerry developers need not worry about being left out in APPCON because the robot hardware that will be provided in the Hackathon Challenge are going to be compatible with any smartphone OS.

Now, whether the dream finals match-up between an Android and an iPhone cellbot is ever going to happen still remains to be seen. Who knows? Symbian and RIM OS machines might just steal the show.

You might want to read some related articles here in Robot Reviews:

Android OS Now Used to Drive Real Robots - More information about cellbots plus a video

iPhone Robot - It’s Not Just Your Typical App - this should give Android cellbot developers an idea what they’ll be going up against.

Google Android OS to Power ASUS “EEEBot” Robots - Nope, we’re not talking about laptop robots here. Here’s a clue: Google’s Android OS is about to enter iRobot’s playground.

More information about the cellbot challenge can be found when you click that link.

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