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.

Preface

Who this book is for

What this book covers

To get the most out of this book

Free Chapter

Introduction to Robotics

Introduction to Robotics

What does robot mean?

Advanced and impressive robots

Robots in the home

Robots in industry

Competitive, educational, and hobby robots

Further reading

Exploring Robot Building Blocks - Code and Electronics

Exploring Robot Building Blocks - Code and Electronics

Technical requirements

What is inside a robot?

Types of motors, sensors, and actuators

Controllers and IO

Planning components and code structure

Planning our robot

Further reading

Introducing the Raspberry Pi - Starting with Raspbian

Introducing the Raspberry Pi - Starting with Raspbian

Technical requirements

What can the Raspberry Pi do?

What connections will we use?

What is Raspbian?

Preparing an SD card

Further reading

Preparing a Raspberry Pi for a Robot - Headless by Default

Preparing a Raspberry Pi for a Robot - Headless by Default

Technical requirements

What does headless mean and why?

Setting up wireless on the Raspberry Pi and enabling SSH

Finding your Pi on the network

Using PuTTY or SSH to connect to your Raspberry Pi

Configuring Raspbian

Further reading

Backing Up the Code with Git and SD Card Copies

Backing Up the Code with Git and SD Card Copies

Technical requirements

How code can be broken or lost

Strategy 1 - keep the code on the PC and upload it

Strategy 2 – using Git to go back in time

Strategy 3 – making SD card backups

Further reading

Building Robot Basics - Wheels, Power, and Wiring

Building Robot Basics - Wheels, Power, and Wiring

Technical requirements

Choosing a chassis kit

Choosing a motor controller

Powering the robot

Test fitting the robot

Assembling the base

Further reading

Drive and Turn - Moving Motors with Python

Drive and Turn - Moving Motors with Python

Technical requirements

Connecting the motors to the Raspberry Pi

Writing code to test your motors

Steering a robot

The robot object – code for our experiments to talk to the robot

Write a script to follow a predetermined path

Further reading

Programming Line-Following Sensors Using Python

Programming Line-Following Sensors Using Python

Technical requirements

Attaching line sensors to the robot and Raspberry Pi

Painting the test track

Writing the code – testing the sensors

Writing the line-following behavior

Further reading

Programming RGB Strips in Python

Programming RGB Strips in Python

Technical requirements

Comparing light strip technologies

Attaching the light strip to the Raspberry Pi

Making a robot display code object

Using the light strip for debugging the line follower robot

Further reading

Using Python to Control Servo Motors

Using Python to Control Servo Motors

Technical requirements

What are servo motors?

Positioning a servo

Adding a pan and tilt mechanism

Creating pan and tilt code

Further reading

Programming Distance Sensors with Python

Programming Distance Sensors with Python

Technical requirements

Choosing light versus ultrasonic sensors

Attaching and reading an ultrasonic sensor

Avoiding walls – a script to avoid obstacles

Menu modes – choosing your robot's behavior

Further reading

Programming Encoders with Python

Programming Encoders with Python

Technical requirements

What are encoders?

Attaching encoders to the robot

Detecting the distance traveled in Python

Driving in a straight line

Driving a specific distance

Making a specific turn

Further reading

Robot Vision - Using a Pi Camera and OpenCV

Robot Vision - Using a Pi Camera and OpenCV

Technical requirements

Setting up the Raspberry Pi Camera

Setting up OpenCV

Colors, masking, and filtering – chasing colored objects

Detecting faces with Haar cascades

Further reading

Voice Communication with a Robot Using Mycroft

Voice Communication with a Robot Using Mycroft

Technical requirements

Introducing Mycroft

Adding sound input and output to the Raspberry Pi

Installing Mycroft on the Raspberry Pi

Programming Mycroft skills for the robot functions

Further reading

Programming a Gamepad on Raspberry Pi with Python

Programming a Gamepad on Raspberry Pi with Python

Technical requirements

When speech control won't work - why we need to drive

Choosing a controller

Preparing the Raspberry Pi for our controller and driving with it

Upgrading the menu and displaying code for full headless

Making it start when the Pi starts

Further reading

Taking Your Robot Programming Skills Further

Taking Your Robot Programming Skills Further

Online robot building communities – forums and social media

Meeting robot builders – competitions, makerspaces, and meetups

Suggestions for further skills – 3D printing, soldering, PCB, and CnC

Finding more information on computer vision

Extending into machine Learning

Further reading

Planning Your Next Robot Project - Putting It All Together

Planning Your Next Robot Project - Putting It All Together

Technical requirements

Visualizing your next robot

Making a block diagram

Choosing the parts

Planning the code for the robot

Letting the world know

Assessments

Chapter 1, Introduction to Robotics

Chapter 2, Exploring Robot Building Blocks - Code and Electronics

Chapter 3, Introducing the Raspberry Pi - Starting with Raspbian

Chapter 4, Preparing a Raspberry Pi for a Robot - Headless by Default

Chapter 5, Backing Up the Code with Git and SD Card Copies

Chapter 6, Building Robot Basics - Wheels, Power, and Wiring

Chapter 7, Drive and Turn - Moving Motors with Python

Chapter 8, Programming Line-Following Sensors Using Python

Chapter 9, Programming RGB Strips in Python

Chapter 10, Using Python to Control Servo Motors

Chapter 11, Programming Distance Sensors with Python

Chapter 12, Programming Encoders with Python

Chapter 13, Robot Vision - Using a Pi Camera and OpenCV

Chapter 14, Voice Communication with a Robot Using Mycroft

Chapter 15, Programming a Gamepad on Raspberry Pi with Python

Other Books You May Enjoy

Other Books You May Enjoy

Leave a review - let other readers know what you think

Appendix

Converting this code to Python 3

OpenCV versions

Power smoothing capacitor

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Preparing an SD card

To use Raspbian on a Raspberry Pi, you will need to put the software onto a micro SD card in a way that the Raspberry Pi can load it.

First, we need to download Raspbian. To do this, take your browser to the Raspberry Pi Raspbian Downloads Page: https://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads/raspbian/. On this page, you'll see two distributions: Raspbian With a Desktop and Raspbian Lite. Both these links will be the current version of Raspbian:

The Raspberry Pi downloads screen

The Raspbian Lite downloads can be seen highlighted in the preceding image. You'll see two download links, Download Torrent and Download Zip. Click the Download Zip button and save this file. Note that the versions do change, so please use the current version. This file is big, at around 400 MB! It will be named something like 2018-06-27-raspbian-stretch-lite.zip, with a current...