This chapter will provide you with a variety of practical assembly guidelines about the mobile robot that the content of this book is based on. With a very practical approach in mind, we'll deep dive into the characteristics of GoPiGo3 and what makes it an ideal platform to learn robotics.
First, we will focus on the hardware and talk about the components that every robot is composed of including the mechanical parts and embedded system, sensor, and motors.
After completing the GoPiGo3 assembly section, you will be acquiring manual skills so that you can start manipulating typical components in robotics. You will also be driven to adopt a systematic approach of applying partial verification tests while assembling your robot, also known as unit tests.
After introducing the GoPiGo3 robot in the first section of this chapter, we will explain these concepts in depth, including the embedded controller, the GoPiGo3 board, and the embedded computer, the Raspberry Pi.
Next, we will describe the sensors and actuators that the robot will use, grouped into what we will call the electromechanics.
Finally, we will provide you with some useful guidelines so that assembling the robot is straightforward. Then, we will test the GoPiGo3 robot using its easy-to-start software, DexterOS. Even though we will adopt Ubuntu as an operating system for running ROS later in this book, it is recommended that you start with DexterOS so that you familiarize yourself with the hardware while avoiding specific software programming tasks, which is something that will be left for later chapters.
In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:
- Understanding the GoPiGo3 robot
- Getting familiar with the embedded hardware – GoPiGo3 board and Raspberry Pi
- Deep diving into the electromechanics – motors, sensors, and 2D camera
- Putting it all together
- Hardware testing using Bloxter (visual programming) under DexterOS
