Book Image

Learn Robotics Programming - Second Edition

By : Danny Staple
Book Image

Learn Robotics Programming - Second Edition

By: Danny Staple

Overview of this book

We live in an age where the most complex or repetitive tasks are automated. Smart robots have the potential to revolutionize how we perform all kinds of tasks with high accuracy and efficiency. With this second edition of Learn Robotics Programming, you'll see how a combination of the Raspberry Pi and Python can be a great starting point for robot programming. The book starts by introducing you to the basic structure of a robot and shows you how to design, build, and program it. As you make your way through the book, you'll add different outputs and sensors, learn robot building skills, and write code to add autonomous behavior using sensors and a camera. You'll also be able to upgrade your robot with Wi-Fi connectivity to control it using a smartphone. Finally, you'll understand how you can apply the skills that you've learned to visualize, lay out, build, and code your future robot building projects. By the end of this book, you'll have built an interesting robot that can perform basic artificial intelligence operations and be well versed in programming robots and creating complex robotics projects using what you've learned.
Table of Contents (25 chapters)
1
Section 1: The Basics – Preparing for Robotics
7
Section 2: Building an Autonomous Robot – Connecting Sensors and Motors to a Raspberry Pi
15
Section 3: Hearing and Seeing – Giving a Robot Intelligent Sensors
21
Section 4: Taking Robotics Further

Visualizing your next robot

When we started this book, in Chapter 2, Exploring Robot Building Blocks – Code and Electronics, we first learned how to look at robots as a sketch. I suggested that you make quick drawings, and not worry if they are rough and sketchy—this is perfect at an early planning stage. Use a pencil or pen, and then move on to the more formal block and layout diagrams later.

Every robot starts with a bit of inspiration. Perhaps there is a competition you want to try; maybe you've seen something such as another robot or an animal you want to mimic (crabs are fascinating!). Other inspirations may come from seeing a unique new part or wanting to learn/play with a new skill. You may even have made a list of amazing robots you want to try to build.

Before building a robot, make a short bullet-point list of what it will do, which sensors/outputs it will have, and what it might have to deal with. This list lets you focus your efforts. Here is an...