Arduino Robotics

This book will show you how to use your Arduino to control a variety of different robots, while providing step-by-step instructions on the entire robot building process. You'll learn Arduino basics as well as the characteristics of different types of motors used in robotics. You also discover controller methods and failsafe methods, and learn how to apply them to your project. The book starts with basic robots and moves into more complex projects, including a GPS-enabled robot, a robotic lawn mower, a fighting bot, and even a DIY Segway-clone.

Introduction to the Arduino and other components needed for robotics
Learn how to build motor controllers
Build bots from simple line-following and bump-sensor bots to more complex robots that can mow your lawn, do battle, or even take you for a ride

Please note: the print version of this title is black & white; the eBook is full color.

What you’ll learn

Basics of motor-control
Basics of PCB design and fabrication
R/C control and decoding
Autonomous sensor guidance
Frame building from various materials
Instructions for a variety of robot designs

Who this book is for

Electronics and robotics hobbyists and DIY builders.

Table of Contents

The Basics
Arduino for Robotics
Let’s Get Moving
Linus the Line-Bot
Wally the Wall-Bot
Making PCBs
The Bug-Bot
Explorer-Bot
RoboBoat
Lawn-Bot 400
The Seg-Bot
The Battle-Bot
Alternate Control

Customer Reviews:

Interesting read

By E. Berta - September 22, 2011

It was an interesting read. The three hobbyists go through the robotic designs that they made on the cheap using old scavenged parts. They did an amazing job simplifying concepts to the point anybody with a high school education can understand them. Most of the book is devoted not to the Arduino but to the mechanical engineering parts of making a robot on the cheap. Diverse topics like cutting polystyrene and making homemade PCB's take up most of the book with the Arduino part mostly being a brief description of what the code does. I would recommend the book, but there are things that might annoy some people. It doesn't have much of an in-depth look at the Arudino itself. For their more complicated robots where non-library custom code is needed you will see comments like "If you want to understand this, you must read the Data Sheet of atmega168." These guys seem to own a hardware store of tools and have a warehouse of parts lying around. The use of old scavenged parts is cool, but it... read more

Arduino Robotics

By Chas Venter - August 18, 2011

This is a cracker of a book and an essential cornerstone for anyone who has recently started tinkering with robotics, or is thinking of doing so. It goes way beyond the title to cover a multitude of disciplines required to undertake and complete the projects in the book, and in the process imparts valuable knowledge to the reader.

The authors have used a solid foundation to describe the basic electric and electronic theory in a simple and straight forward way, making the book both easy to read and understand. The electronics world has many pitfalls where duplicate terminology abounds and the authors have clearly described these situations which certainly would help a novice understand the ambiguity created when terms like negative, ground, sink, VSS and cathode all refer to the same thing. The visual depiction of both electronic component symbols and actual components makes this book an invaluable reference.

The versatility of the Arduino becomes evident when the... read more

Excellently Teaches Arduino, Robotics & Many Hacker Skills

By Ira Laefsky "Ira Laefsky" - July 27, 2011

If all this excellent book did was to provide careful, graduated instruction in robotics and the necessary Arduino skills to complete the
transition from a line-following or wall hugging robot to advanced projects like a workhorse lawnbot and a do-it yourself Segway-clone it would be worth many times the cover price. But, with practical well-illustrated instruction it also provides the physical computing enthusiast with the background they need in sensors and actuators (like accelerometers, H-Bridge Motor Controllers and Arduino Interfacing of DC Servo and Stepper Motors) to complete many advanced projects of all kinds with the Arduino and a variety of embedded processors. Addtional Hackerspace skills such as use of a Dremel Tool, PCB layout with Eagle Cad and homebrew PCB construction round out the skills to complete a wide variety of Electronic and Mechatronic projects.

So, whether your aim is to build personal robotic projects in the Hackerspace, or in K-12 STEM... read more