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)

Driving in a straight line

By now, you may have seen differences in the outputs, that is, a veer. In only 400 mm, my left side is around 20 mm behind the right, an error that is climbing. Depending on your motors, your robot may have some veer too. It is rare for a robot to have driven perfectly straight. We'll use the sensors to correct this.

Note that this is still dead reckoning; slipping on surfaces or incorrect measurements can still set this off course. This works better on wooden flooring or MDF boards, and poorly on carpet.

Concepts for correction

Driving in a straight line needs a closed feedback loop. The following diagram shows how this loop works:

Closed loop control of a motor's speed

We take an...