Building a robot and teaching it to recognize its
surroundings is an excellent method to advance your Arduino expertise. In
developing this book, I combined my passion for creating with my knowledge of
electronics, robotics, and microcontrollers. I hope you have as much fun
creating and improving your robot as I did developing the concepts in this book.
Arduino is a microcontroller (small computer) series and a software development environment that allows you to easily write programs (called sketches) that interact with the real world. Arduino allows your robot to perceive its surroundings and respond in a wide range of ways. This book will assist you in building a robot capable of completing a wide range of jobs. It shows how to put together two of the most common mobile platforms: a robot with two wheels and a caster (for stability, because it's difficult to balance on two wheels) and a robot with four wheels and motors. If you want to get your robot up and running fast, one of the kits described in this book should help you get started with the robot projects. Whether you decide to design and build your own platform or build from a kit, the projects in this book will provide a practical and enjoyable introduction to Arduino robots.