Book Image

Python Robotics Projects

By : Prof. Diwakar Vaish
Book Image

Python Robotics Projects

By: Prof. Diwakar Vaish

Overview of this book

Robotics is a fast-growing industry. Multiple surveys state that investment in the field has increased tenfold in the last 6 years, and is set to become a $100-billion sector by 2020. Robots are prevalent throughout all industries, and they are all set to be a part of our domestic lives. This book starts with the installation and basic steps in configuring a robotic controller. You'll then move on to setting up your environment to use Python with the robotic controller. You'll dive deep into building simple robotic projects, such as a pet-feeding robot, and more complicated projects, such as machine learning enabled home automation system (Jarvis), vision processing based robots and a self-driven robotic vehicle using Python. By the end of this book, you'll know how to build smart robots using Python.
Table of Contents (24 chapters)
Title Page
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Index

Basics of the vehicle


You must be thinking: what can we possibly learn about the vehicle that we don't already know? This may be true, but there are a few that we must make sure we understand before taking on this chapter. So, let's get started. 

First is the chassis, which we will be using: it's is a four-wheel drive chassis and all the four wheels are independently controlled by a dedicated motor. Hence, we can change the speed of every single wheels as per our needs. We have chosen a four-wheel drive drivetrain as it is harder for it to get stuck on carpets and uneven surfaces. You can also opt for a two-wheel drive drivetrain if you want to do so, as it won't make a huge difference. 

Now, once you assemble the chassis you might see that it does not have a steering mechanism. Does this mean that the car will only go straight? Well, obviously not. There are many ways by which we can steer the direction of a car while making small vehicles. The best one is called differential turning. 

In...