Book Image

Learn Robotics Programming - Second Edition

By : Danny Staple
Book Image

Learn Robotics Programming - Second Edition

By: Danny Staple

Overview of this book

We live in an age where the most complex or repetitive tasks are automated. Smart robots have the potential to revolutionize how we perform all kinds of tasks with high accuracy and efficiency. With this second edition of Learn Robotics Programming, you'll see how a combination of the Raspberry Pi and Python can be a great starting point for robot programming. The book starts by introducing you to the basic structure of a robot and shows you how to design, build, and program it. As you make your way through the book, you'll add different outputs and sensors, learn robot building skills, and write code to add autonomous behavior using sensors and a camera. You'll also be able to upgrade your robot with Wi-Fi connectivity to control it using a smartphone. Finally, you'll understand how you can apply the skills that you've learned to visualize, lay out, build, and code your future robot building projects. By the end of this book, you'll have built an interesting robot that can perform basic artificial intelligence operations and be well versed in programming robots and creating complex robotics projects using what you've learned.
Table of Contents (25 chapters)
1
Section 1: The Basics – Preparing for Robotics
7
Section 2: Building an Autonomous Robot – Connecting Sensors and Motors to a Raspberry Pi
15
Section 3: Hearing and Seeing – Giving a Robot Intelligent Sensors
21
Section 4: Taking Robotics Further

Test fitting the robot

I recommend test fitting before actually ordering parts. The test fit helps a builder be more confident that components fit, and you'll know roughly where these parts go. This step saves you time and money later.

You can use paper and a pen for test fitting, or an app such as diagrams.net. First, I find the dimensions for all the parts. Figure 6.15 has a screenshot from Amazon showing how to spot product dimensions:

Figure 6.15 – Finding product specifications

Some information-digging is needed to find these for your parts. For each, first find a shop you can buy them at, such as Amazon, several online shops, or eBay. You can then search for or ask for information about the dimensions of each board or item. Make sure you are looking at the dimensions of the part and not its packaging:

Figure 6.16 – A battery box product drawing with dimensions

You can find diagrams like the battery box in...