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Introduction to Robotics

Have you ever wanted to build a robot? Have you seen amazing robots other people make and want to know where to start? This book will get you started on what a robot is, and show you how to make and program a robot that appears to be intelligent. We'll write code that uses sensors to observe the robot's surroundings and build real-world examples for advanced topics, including vision, speech recognition, and talking.

You'll see how combining simple build techniques with some code results in a machine that feels like a pet. You will also learn how to debug it when things go wrong, which they will. You'll find out how the robot can indicate problems back to you, along with selecting the behavior you would like to demonstrate. We'll connect a smartphone to it, add voice control, and finally, show you how to plan further robot builds.

So, before we start building a robot, it's worth spending a little time on what a robot is. We can explore some types of robots, along with principles that distinguish robots from other machines. You'll think a little about where the line between robot and non-robot machines is located, and then perhaps muddy that line a little bit with the somewhat fuzzy truth. We will then look at a few robots built in the hobbyist and amateur robotics scenes and the parts that go into making them.

In this chapter, we will be covering the following topics:

• What does the word robot mean?
• Exploring real-world robots
• Robots in industry
• Looking at what's inside a robot
• Exploring different types of robot components