A. Meet Your Robot
Last updated
Last updated
In this first tutorial, you'll become familiar with your team's robotics kit. Your team might receive a new robotics kit that needs to be assembled – or you might receive an existing robot that is ready to use.
NEW ROBOT: If you need to assemble a new SparkFun RedBot kit, follow the instructions in the . If your teacher added an ultrasonic sensor to your kit, follow these to your assembled robot.
IMPORTANT: Once a SparkFun RedBot has been assembled, it should remain assembled (even after the project is completed). RedBot assembly is a one-time process.
The goals of this tutorial are to help you:
Understand the parts of your robot and their purposes
Identify the physical inputs and outputs that your robot can use to sense and act
This guidebook is tailored for a two-wheeled robotics kit called the , which will simply be referred to as the RedBot kit.
​ is a company that sells products to help people build and program electronics devices. SparkFun created its RedBot kit by incorporating an Arduino-based microcontroller into an easy-to-use circuit board and packaged it with a set of motors, wheels, sensors, and other parts to help you learn how to program a wheeled robot. It is also possible to purchase additional parts (sensors, servo motors, etc.) that can be used with this RedBot kit.
Once assembled, your RedBot should look like this:
A simple (but important) step is to understand the orientation of the RedBot — specifically, which end is the front of the robot? An easy way to remember: most of the sensors are attached at the front end, while the circuit board is located at the back end.
If you have an , it should be mounted at the front of the robot on top of the chassis (above the mechanical bumpers and IR line sensors). The ultrasonic sensor should face forward, like a pair of "eyes" (though an ultrasonic sensor actually uses high-frequency sound waves to "see").
