My cellphone could kick your cellphone’s butt. However, both of our phones would get demolished by the work of Tim Heath and Ryan Hickman. The two tech workers got together in their free time and built a mobile robot controlled by a G1. By sending commands to the phone through a telnet session, Heath and Hickman are able to make their makeshift ‘Droidmobile go forward, back, right, left, stop, or speak using the text-to-speech function.

As Wired points out, the most intriguing aspect of what Heath and Hickman have done is how far this hack can potentially be advanced. A phone with GPS, camera, and digital compass could become a handy security or spy tool, data-gathering aid, or a flame-shooting killer robot that battles other phones to the death. Okay, I threw that last one in there because it sounds like the first thing I would try to make; however, there’s an obvious opportunity to do something exciting with this concept.

Surprisingly, the pair was able to build this robot for about $30 in supplies and some time in a workshop. To build your own Truckbot or Tankbot Android-controlled robots, you’ll need to have CyanogenMod and a laundry list of codes, scripts, and tools. Find a complete tutorial on Cellbots.com

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[Wired]