Book Image

Learn Robotics Programming

By : Danny Staple
Book Image

Learn Robotics Programming

By: Danny Staple

Overview of this book

We live in an age where the most difficult human tasks are now automated. Smart and intelligent robots, which will perform different tasks precisely and efficiently, are the requirement of the hour. A combination of Raspberry Pi and Python works perfectly when making these kinds of robots. Learn Robotics Programming starts by introducing you to the basic structure of a robot, along with how to plan, build, and program it. As you make your way through the book, you will gradually progress to adding different outputs and sensors, learning new building skills, and writing code for interesting behaviors with sensors. You’ll also be able to update your robot, and set up web, phone, and Wi-Fi connectivity in order to control it. By the end of the book, you will have built a clever robot that can perform basic artificial intelligence (AI) operations.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)

What are servo motors?

Servo motors, or servomechanism motors, are used to position robotic appendages such as arms, grippers, and sensor mounts or to create other movements where position is the important factor. Unlike the wheel motors (DC motors), where speed is the factor, these motors are used where (to some level of accuracy) a position of 90 degrees or 110 degrees might be required. Code can be used to control these precise positioning movements or a sequence of them. The following photo shows a small selection of servo motors:

A small selection of servo motors

These come in many sizes, from the very small at around 20-30 mm (shown in my photo) to those large enough to move heavy machinery. The next photo shows some of these servos in use for a small variety of my robots:

A small selection of servo motors in robots

SpiderBot uses 18 servo motors to precisely position...