The Beginner’s Guide to Robotics (Part 1 — Introduction)
If given an opportunity to look back at my college life and ponder, I would certainly say that some of the most exciting times I have had were while making several different robots for the numerous competitions and projects which came my way. The sleepless nights programming for hours on end, along with the good company of my friends who were amazing teammates, was the time where I learnt the most, and had the most fun learning.
I believe if there is something that can keep you up at night regardless of deadlines — that is the work worth doing.
Hence, I made it my mission to introduce people to the wonderful world of robotics in the hopes that it excites them as it excites me.
Therefore, I am starting this series which I hope serves as a step-by-step introduction to getting you familiar with the very basics — the fundamentals of what constitutes a robot and the work which goes behind making one. Additionally, my aim is to keep this guide as simple and as ELI5 as possible. This is where I will ask for the support of the community to caution me wherever it gets complex.
If you are a complete beginner, with or without the knack for science, or a seasoned hacker who wishes to reminisce back to the old days, you are curious to know more and are excited to learn, I give you a hearty welcome.
I have structured this guide with the mindset that the reader is a 5th-grade student who is just getting started with science. Therefore, this focuses to serve the absolute beginner, but I am sure that people who are more experienced with science, but not so much robotics, will also be able to get value out of it.
What is a robot?
Before I talk about what we would be making throughout the length of this guide, let’s talk about what a robot is and is not. According to Wikipedia — A robot is a machine — especially one programmable by a computer — capable of carrying out a complex series of actions automatically.
I only half agree. By this definition, a simple machine like an ATM or a vending machine would also be considered a robot. The definition I like more is taken from Wired’s article—
“I would say that a robot is a physically embodied artificially intelligent agent that can take actions that have effects on the physical world” — Anca Dragan, UC Berkeley
According to this definition, the robot needs to be able to make decisions. For me that looks like a sense, think, act cycle —
- Sense
What does my environment look like? How am I positioned? Are there any obstacles around me? - Think
I see a wall in my current path, which way should I turn to avoid it? - Act
There seems to be a clear path towards my right, so I’ll turn towards the right. - Repeat
This cycle could look like a quadcopter avoiding an obstacle, or an industrial robotic arm looking (sensing) for a part lying on the conveyor belt and picking it up.
There is also oftentimes some confusion between a humanoid and a robot. A robot might resemble the physical features and actions of a human being, hence, humanoid, but it may also look like this —
Which brings me to what we’ll be building throughout this guide.
A Line Following Robot
You can’t tell because you are reading this on a screen, but man, am I excited!
A line follower is an autonomous robot which is able to follow a line, often, a black line on a white background or vice versa.
Why a Line Follower?
A line follower is your first step into robotics. It is a really simple robot which you can make, and it teaches you so much about robotics.
I leave it to you to go to YouTube and look at some videos of line followers. I am sure that you’ll be thoroughly motivated.
Methodology
Since the guide is not a tutorial on how to make a line follower, rather, an introduction to robotics, we’ll be going through a lot of topics and working on several small projects which will incrementally take us to the final goal.
In fact, I am currently giving a month-long robotics workshop on weekends for kids and this is the same path that they will be following. That means, I am also making the robot with you and will keep you updated on the progress. Writing this guide also serves to prepare me for the next class.
What’s next?
For the upcoming few parts, we will be looking at the various fields of study that we need to know about to successfully make a line follower.
- Electronics
Here we will look at what are circuits and what are their components. We will understand in short what is meant by Voltage and Current. Towards the end, we will make a simple circuit to reinforce what we learnt. - Mechanics
In this section, we will see how the physical structure of the robot comes together and what are the various driving mechanisms. We will end this section by completing the assembly of our robot. - Programming
To actually give the robot the ability to think we will see how can we program a robot. To do this we will go through what exactly is programming and start from the basics.
Ending Notes
For the ones willing to follow along, I will be writing another article with a detailed plan for the guide. In addition, I will list all the hardware components required and where you can order them from. I will also add a link to the next part of the guide at the end of each part as and when I publish them.
I am thankful to everyone who has taken the time to read and would really appreciate any positive criticisms to make the guide better.
