Many of us have imagined creating robots from a young age, but the reality of building one may seem too complicated to attempt. As a result, we relegate that inventive desire to fantasy and try to forget about it. Perhaps this is why one of the most popular applications of a Raspberry Pi is using it as a foundation for simple robots. People still find robots fascinating, and even if it is only for a hobby or as a stepping stone in learning, they find value in making them. If you’re interested in taking a step into the world of robotics, you can start to discover how to build a robot using Raspberry Pi today with the outline we provide.
Gather a soldering iron and solder, wire leads, four AA batteries and a holder for them, two 3V to 6V DC motors, a motor controller, and a Raspberry Pi. Start by removing the outer jacket off the ends of your wires and solder two separate wires to the terminals on one motor. Then, repeat with the second motor. You should then attach other ends of the wires to the motor controller terminals. These terminals are named OUT1 – 4. Loosen the screws on each terminal and then put the wire ends through them before re-tightening them.
Follow the same steps of attaching the wires for the motor controller terminals labeled VCC and GND, with a red wire in VCC and a black one in GND. You should attach the other ends of these to the battery holder. Finish off by connecting your motor controller board with your Raspberry Pi according to the type of motor controller you are using. You could expect to connect pins that are called ln1 – 4 and GND (not to be confused with GND terminal) with wires to the Raspberry Pi.
In mu within the Raspberry Pi programming menu, type the following:
From gpiozero import Robot
[robot name] = Robot(left=(7,8), right=(9,10))
The [robot name] can be anything you want, such as rob, and shouldn’t have the brackets around it. We just use the brackets to denote that that is the space where you’d insert the robot name. Hit save, then go into a Python Shell by hitting the terminal button, typing the word “python,” and pressing enter. Type in [robot name].forward to see which ways the motors turn, then stop them with robot.stop(). Inputting [robot name].right will make one motor move. This will be your right motor, and the other that did not move will be your left. Check to make sure that when you command [robot name].forward, the motor’s spinning components rotate clockwise when the wired ends are pointing to the right from your perspective.
Finish off by creating the robot’s body. Though there isn’t any strict guideline to follow here, as long as you make sure that all the components can fit inside the body you make. A box or a board that you can attach the parts to should work fine. Generally, you’ll place the left and right motors and one end of the body (the back) on either side (corresponding to the left and right of the robot), and the controller and Raspberry Pi will sit in front of them at the other end. The left and right spinning components of the motors should stick out on either side so you can attach axels and wheels to them. You may use a singular ball caster or more wheels to help the front end roll.
With this, you should have a simple working robot. To put your knowledge on how to build a robot using Raspberry Pi to use, get a Raspberry Pi kit and other electronics items, like micro bit kits, from the Chicago Electronic Distributors website today.
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