A host computer gives your computer a brain.  Where the brain resides is up to you.  There are many options for the host computer hardware.  Four basic categories for the host configurarion are listed below.

Remote Host

In this configuration, the robot is linked to a desktop computer.  This computer could be a Windows PC, a Mac OS X, or Unix/Linux box.  The robot may be connected with a serial cable to the host.  This is useful for static testing.  However, the ideal link for real applications is a wireless connection.  A Garcia robot already has space and connectors for installation of a spread-spectrum 2.4GHz RF serial modem card.  This is the recommended hardware for a Garcia-to-desktop link.

Host on the Robot

In this configuration, the robot carries a host computer on its back.  A short tether connects the host to the robot's serial port.  The host may be a Linux PDA or WinCE PDA such as an iPaq.  New sandwich-sized Linux boards with much better IO capabilities than those of PDAs are available.  Check out the Stargate Development Kit on our website.

Host Network

In this configuration, the robot carries a host computer on its back, but also has a wireless networking card.  The API is written on a completely abstracted stream mechanism allowing the API to relay information over TCP/IP connections.  This can allow remote control of the robot from a host computer that is miles from the actual robot.  Since all the reactive monitoring of the robot's state happens down on the robot itself, any delays in the link stream will not put the robot in peril.

No Host

In this configuration, the robot's own controllers act as its brain.  Computing power and program storage is limited, but the robot can still do some useful tasks as you'll see when you run the built-in demo program.  Programming the robot's controllers requires in-depth knowledge of its operating system.  This is a job for hardcore BrainStem programmers.