Mobile Robot Programming

In this book, the author emphasises software as the most important topic in modern robotics. This book presents hardware and software for mobile robots based on inexpensive embedded processors, as well as the completely free simulation systems.Mobile robots, such as the EyeBot, can be constructed by adapting model cars or building a simple platform with an embedded control, camera, and distance sensors.The simulation system EyeSim is presented in this book. It is a free software for all compute platforms, which uses a realistic physics engine and is source-code compatible to the EyeBot mobile robots. So, each robot program can first be tested on the simulator before the real execution. EyeSim includes modules for driving, walking swimming and diving robots, as well as for robot manipulators.The emphasis on this book is on robot algorithm development and on efficient robot software design. All of which can be started on the simulator, before transferring to a real robot. The book is suitable for undergraduate and graduate courses In Robotics, Automation and Artificial Intelligence, as well as a self-study guide for practitioners and hobbyists.All robot application programs in this book are available as free download for MacOS, Windows, Linux, and Raspberry Pi OS.