Book Image

BeagleBone Robotic Projects

By : Richard Grimmett
Book Image

BeagleBone Robotic Projects

By: Richard Grimmett

Overview of this book

Thanks to new, inexpensive microcontrollers, robotics has become far more accessible than it was in the past. These microcontrollers provide a whole new set of capabilities to allow even the most inexperienced users to make amazingly complicated projects. Beaglebone 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 to allow 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 will include guidance on what to purchase and how to connect it all successfully–and a primer on programming the BeagleBone Black. Chapter by chapter, we will add additional software functionality available from the open source community, including how to make the system see using a webcam, how to hear using a microphone, and how to speak using a speaker. We then add hardware to make your robots move–including wheeled and legged examples–as well as covering how to add sonar sensors to avoid or find objects, plus wireless control to make your robot truly autonomous. Adding GPS allows the robot to find itself. Finally the book covers how to integrate all of this functionality so that it can all work together, before developing the most impressive robotics projects: those that can sail, fly, and explore underwater.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
BeagleBone Robotic Projects
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Connecting the BeagleBone Black to a wireless USB keyboard


You've been able to control your projects using a LAN connection, but you don't want to always have your projects tethered in this manner. In this section I'll show you how to connect via a wireless keyboard.

Prepare for lift off

Break out your USB keyboard. It should come with a USB dongle. Plug the USB dongle into the USB hub, and plug the hub into the BeagleBone Black USB port. If you are using a standard USB 2.4 GHz wireless keyboard, the entire system should look similar to what is shown in the following image:

You can also use one of the 2.4 GHz wireless keyboards that look more like a gaming controller in the same manner.

Engage thrusters

Apply power to the USB hub and the BeagleBone Black. After some time, the unit should power on to display the log-in prompt. As you type in the username you should see the characters, similar to what is shown in the following image:

After you type the username and password, you can type startx...