Book Image

Practical Arduino Robotics

By : Lukas Kaul
Book Image

Practical Arduino Robotics

By: Lukas Kaul

Overview of this book

Every robot needs a “brain,” and the Arduino platform provides an incredibly accessible way to bring your Arduino robot to life. Anyone can easily learn to build and program their own robots with Arduino for hobby and commercial uses, making Arduino-based robots the popular choice for school projects, college courses, and the rapid prototyping of industrial applications! Practical Arduino Robotics is a comprehensive guide that equips you with the necessary skills and techniques that can be applied to various projects and applications, from automating repetitive tasks in a laboratory to building engaging mobile robots. Building on basic knowledge of programming and electronics, this book teaches you how to choose the right components, such as Arduino boards, sensors, and motors, and write effective code for your robotics project, including the use of advanced third-party Arduino libraries and interfaces, such as Analog, SPI, I2C, PWM, and UART. You'll also learn different ways to command your robots wirelessly, such as over Wi-Fi. Finally, with basic to advanced project examples, this book illustrates how to build exciting autonomous robots like a self-balancing telepresence robot. By the end of this book, you'll be able to design and create your own custom robots for a wide variety of applications.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
1
Part 1: Selecting the Right Components for Your Robots
6
Part 2: Writing Effective and Reliable Robot Programs for Arduino
10
Part 3: Building the Hardware, Electronics, and UI of Your Robot
15
Part 4: Advanced Example Projects to Put Your Robotic Skills into Action

Different motor types and how to use them

Now that we have a good understanding of the basics of how electric motors for DIY robots work, let us look in more detail at the most used motor types. We will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each of these motor types and go through the hardware setup and Arduino code to use them.

Using RC servo motors

The easiest electric actuator type to use with Arduino is the standard RC servo motor. An RC servo is an integrated system that has the following components, all packaged in a very compact housing:

  • An electric motor with a gearbox, most commonly a miniature DC motor
  • A suitable motor driver circuit
  • A shaft encoder at the output of the gearbox, most commonly a simple potentiometer
  • A microcontroller that reads an input signal and controls the position of the gearbox output by driving the motor accordingly

There is a large selection of RC servos available that vary in size, speed, torque, and input voltage...