Controlling robot via web browser

for my project this year i'll be making a simple robotic arm. controlling it using a microcontroller. i want to make it controllable through an internet browser or just wireless.
i was looking for something simple to get the job done.
any idea of how i could go about this?

onboard will be a computer connected to the microcontroller.

 

that's a pretty interesting project you got there =O

but that's quite an undertaking as well.. since you would like to create an app that allows you to control your robot via web browser, you will need to create a web app and host it on some sort of web server... then you will need to figure out a way you can communicate to your microcontroller, ie: using a router or something as a wireless receiver.. your web app would then have to communicate with some sort of wireless transmitter..

one thing for certain, since you want to control the robot via browser, the web app needs to be able to process requests and responses... this dynamic app needs to be hosted on an application server, and you will need to figure out how you will communicate from this app, to your microcontroller...

also, when you mean by "onboard will be a computer connected to the MC", do you mean that your computer will be connected to the MC, or there is a mini computer connected to the MC, and that you need to communicated between your computer and the mini-computer?

 

i'll probably have a mini computer (small laptop) hooked up to it directly using a serial cable straight into the board and then possibly this laptop connected to a modem/router. im not a genius at these things so i need it to be simple. i've considered a wireless transmitter ont he board which connects to the router. but i think it may be a little too difficult for me to program it all.
i know i'll need to program the microcontroller, but i think the difficult part will be controlling it remotely. or even finding a way to do it remotely. connecting the board up to the computer and controlling the motors is straight forward (after much debugging >.<) but the connectign to internet/wireless and then connecting/controlling is what im unsure of (my biggest problem)

thanks. that's pretty much what i need.
i think i might look into this if the java programming isn't too difficult (i hope not)
but i'll probably be using a different microcontroller. we're using the atmega16 chip on a stk500 board at the moment.
so im not sure if it'll be a little more difficult. and if i need to code everything that might be a hassle. anyone used these boards before?or know if the programming of java will be easy? (i've never used java before)

 

you should never expect things to be easy... i have experience in writing servlets, i've had experience in writing code, and i've had experience in programming microcontrollers... and i gotta tell you, in order for me to develop your project, i have to combine everything i know lol

essentially, this is what you have to do:

you have a small computer on your robot, which will have a web server installed. this web server will host your web application, which is a combination of dynamic html pages and servlets. the html pages will be your "UI" in which you can use to control your robot. the responses are forwarded to the servlet, which will process the responses from your html page, and translate them into commands your microcontroller can understand, via some APIs. this computer will be connected to a network, in which you can access the html pages (hosted on the computer on the robot), from a different computer.

 

thanks Dan
that was a good way to put it. it's sort of how i was planning on doing it. but didn't know how to connect the software together. guess i'll need to cod eit all myself >.<
i was never expectign it to be easy. but didn't think there would be this much coding. haha

 

I did this sort of stuff in high school. We used lego, lasers and NXT to build the robot.