There have been many recent technological advances that have really changed the way we live, work, and play. The television, the computer, and the cell phone all have dramatically affected our lives. Each of these generally started out with a few early adopters, for the most part, individuals with lots of resources that were able to afford the new technology. However, soon after, there was a movement to make the technology more affordable for a wider range of people.
The latest technological movement is robotics. The number, kind, and use of robots is growing dramatically. The first of these robots were developed in university labs or in military research centers. However, just as with the adaption of the computer, there is already a growing grassroots movement of do-it-yourself developers that has sprung up to make robots a part of our everyday life.
This movement has been fueled by inexpensive hardware and free, open source software. However, it has also been enabled by a community of developers who are willing to help others get started or overcome challenges that they have experienced.
This book is offered in the spirit of this do-it-yourself movement. Inside the book, you'll find details about how to take Raspberry Pi B 2, an inexpensive, small, but versatile computer, and marry it with inexpensive hardware and open source software to build a bipedal robot that can walk, sense barriers, and even see its surroundings.
However, be careful—this sort of information can be dangerous. Before long, you may be creating the next generation of thinking, walking, sensing machines that will be at the heart of the robotic revolution.
Chapter 1, Configuring and Programming Raspberry Pi, begins with a discussion on how to connect power, and it continues through setting up a full system that's configured and ready to begin connecting any of the amazing devices and Software capabilities to develop advanced robotics applications.
Chapter 2, Building the Biped, shows how to construct the mechanics of the biped platform whether you want to use 3D print, purchase, or construct your own legs and body.
Chapter 3, Motion for the Biped, talks about how once you have the platform built, you'll need to program it to walk, wave, play dead, or perform any number of neat motion segments so that you can coordinate the movement of your platform.
Chapter 4, Avoiding Obstacles Using Sensors, shows you how to add IR sensors so that you can avoid running into barriers.
Chapter 5, Path Planning and Your Biped, covers how to plan the movement of your biped. As you move around, you'll want to be able to move from point A to point B.
Chapter 6, Adding Vision to Your Biped, provides the details of how to connect a webcam, the hardware, and the software so that we can use it to input visual data into our system.
Chapter 7, Accessing Your Biped Remotely, covers the basics of how to configure the Raspberry Pi as a wireless access point so that you can control your biped remotely.