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Robotics Course

Build and Code Your Own Arduino/ESP32/Raspberry Pi Robots!

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Don’t buy a robot, design and build your own! This free, self-paced course takes you from choosing a brain for your bot (Arduino, ESP8266/ESP32 or Raspberry Pi) through motors, motor drivers, sensors and remote control, to giving it a body.

Work through the lessons in order, or jump to the one you need. Everything is free and open source!

What you need

  1. Introduction
  2. Choosing a Brain for your robot
  3. Motors and Actuators
  4. Basic Motor Controllers
  5. Sensors
  6. Breadboards, Batteries, Chassis, Wheels and Wires

Motor Control

  1. Introduction
  2. Basic DC Motor Movement
  3. Forward and Reverse with Servos
  4. Controlling DC Motors with the L293D H-Bridge Chip
  5. Using Motor Drivers, Shields and Breakouts
  6. Stepper Drivers
  7. L298N Breakouts
  8. Changing Direction with Tank Turning – L298n Breakout and Two Motors

Sensors

  1. Infrared Sensor

Remote Control

  1. IR Remote Control

Robot Chassis

  1. Robot Chassis
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence

Free to use, adapt and share. This course by Chris Garrett, Maker Hacks, is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. Workshops, schools and clubs are welcome to use it, including in your own handouts and sessions. Just credit “Chris Garrett, Maker Hacks (makerhacks.com)” with a link to the lesson, and share any adapted versions under the same licence. Embedded videos and other people’s content keep their own terms.

Improved a lesson or spotted a mistake? I would love to hear about it: get in touch.