Python All-in-One For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 2

Building Your First Python Robot

IN THIS CHAPTER

Building a robot

Understanding the components

Learning to program the components

In this chapter, we build a robot and show you how to use Python to talk to all the parts. Why build the robot first? For two reasons: First, you save money by buying a kit-based robot versus a prebuilt one. Second, by building a robot you get to know how all the parts fit together and work, and how to use Python to control those motors and sensors.

We have chosen a robot based on our friend, the Raspberry Pi single-board computer. You can get robots based on many other types of computers, including the Arduino, but with those smaller computers, you can’t do the kind of processing or artificial intelligence applications that you can on the Raspberry Pi.

After all, this is Python All-in-One For Dummies. Wouldn’t you like to be able to use some of the sophisticated Python tools you learned earlier in this book?

Python programs are available for the Arduino (Circuit Python, for example), but the small processor and memory on the Arduino are limitations. The Raspberry Pi is much better suited for high-level AI applications on robots.

Introducing ...