Algorhythmic has posted a multi-part tutorial at aonsquared describing how to build a voice controlled robotic arm. While recovering from a wrist injury he decided to assemble and experiment with a robotic arm controlled by USB using notbrainsurgery’s protocol. After getting accustomed to the interface he decided to take it one step further and add voice control.
This project requires a robot arm (from OWI, or Maplin if you’re in the UK) and a microphone attached to a computer running Linux and some (mostly) open source software including the Hidden Markov Model tool kit (HTK) from Cambridge University, Julius speech recognition decoder developed by CSRC, Japan, sound recording software (Audacity, Sound Recorder, etc.) and libusb version 1.0.
The tutorial’s three parts go in-depth on the programming involved in training the voice module to a set of basic commands and coding the interface. Start with Part 1here.
Then move on to Part 2 and Part 3.