Book Image

BeagleBone: Creative Projects for Hobbyists

By : Rodolfo Giometti, Charles A. Hamilton, Richard Grimmett
Book Image

BeagleBone: Creative Projects for Hobbyists

By: Rodolfo Giometti, Charles A. Hamilton, Richard Grimmett

Overview of this book

BeagleBone is a microboard PC that runs Linux. It can connect to the Internet and run OSes such as Android and Ubuntu. You can transform this tiny device into a brain for an embedded application or an endless variety of electronic inventions and prototypes. This Learning Path starts off by teaching you how to program the BeagleBone. You will create introductory projects to get yourselves acquainted with all the nitty gritty. Then we’ll focus on a series of projects that are aimed at hobbyists like you and encompass the areas of home automation and robotics. With each project, we’ll teach you how to connect several sensors and an actuator to the BeagleBone Black. We’ll also create robots for land, sea, and water. Yes, really! The books used in this Learning Path are: 1. BeagleBone Black Cookbook 2. BeagleBone Home Automation Blueprints 3. Mastering BeagleBone Robotics
Table of Contents (6 chapters)

What this learning path covers

Module 1, BeagleBone Black Cookbook, With dozens of how-to do’s, this module kicks off with the basic steps for setting up and running the BeagleBone Black for the first time, from connecting the necessary hardware and using the command line with Linux commands to installing new software and controlling your system remotely. Following these recipes, more advanced examples take you through scripting, debugging, and working with software source files, eventually working with the Linux kernel. Subsequently, you will learn how to exploit the board’s real-time functions. We will then discover exciting methods for using sound and video with the system before marching forward into an exploration of recipes for building Internet of Things projects. Finally, the module finishes with a dramatic arc upward into outer space, when you explore ways to build projects for tracking and monitoring satellites.

Module 2, BeagleBone Home Automation Blueprints, Packed with real-world examples, this module will provide you with examples of how to connect several sensors and an actuator to the BeagleBone Black. You’ll learn how to give access to them, in order to realize simple-to-complex monitoring and controlling systems that will help you take control of the house. You will also find software examples of implementing web interfaces using the classical PHP/HTML pair with JavaScript, using complex APIs to interact with a Google Docs account, WhatsApp, or Facebook. This module is an invaluable tutorial if you are planning to use a BeagleBone Black in a home automation project.

Module 3, Mastering BeagleBone Robotic, Will show how to use BeagleBone Black in a number of fascinating and very different projects. It will start off by showing how to build a tracked robot that can move, sense barriers, and see its environment. You will also learn to build a sailing robot that controls both the rudder and sail, uses GPS to plans its sailing path, and can also sense the wind. It also covers a project wherein you can build an underwater ROV that you can control and uses a webcam to allow you to explore the world under the water. This module will also teach you to build, add, monitor and making your Quadcopter autonomous. It will provide you in-depth knowledge of how to build a robot from scratch using the powerful BeagleBone Black.