Book Image

BeagleBone Robotic Projects - Second Edition

Book Image

BeagleBone Robotic Projects - Second Edition

Overview of this book

BeagleBone Blue is effectively a small, light, cheap computer in a similar vein to Raspberry Pi and Arduino. It has all of the extensibility of today’s desktop machines, but without the bulk, expense, or noise. This project guide provides step-by-step instructions that enable anyone to use this new, low-cost platform in some fascinating robotics projects. By the time you are finished, your projects will be able to see, speak, listen, detect their surroundings, and move in a variety of amazing ways. The book begins with unpacking and powering up the components. This includes guidance on what to purchase and how to connect it all successfully, and a primer on programming the BeagleBone Blue. You will add additional software functionality available from the open source community, including making the system see using a webcam, hear using a microphone, and speak using a speaker. You will then learn to use the new hardware capability of the BeagleBone Blue to make your robots move, as well as discover how to add sonar sensors to avoid or find objects. Later, you will learn to remotely control your robot through iOS and Android devices. At the end of this book, you will see how to integrate all of these functionalities to work together, before developing the most impressive robotics projects: Drone and Submarine.
Table of Contents (11 chapters)

Hardware prerequisites

For this chapter, you're going to need several pieces of hardware:

  1. First, you'll need a USB device that supports microphone in and speaker out. These are available at most online electronics outlets. One such device is shown next:
  2. Then, you'll need a microphone that can plug into the USB device. Again, these are available at most online electronics outlets. Here is an example:
  3. Finally, you'll need a powered speaker that can plug into the USB device. When you get the speaker, make sure it is powered. Your board will generally not be able to drive a passive speaker with enough power for these applications. This can either be internal battery power, or it can be powered via a USB. Here is a picture of such a device:

Fortunately, these devices are very inexpensive and are widely available. You'll need to get these before you...