Introducing the hardware for the robot

I designed Albert the Robot to perform one manual task – picking up toys. As such, I chose a set of motors, a speaker, and a robot arm as effectors, and a camera and microphone as sensors. Here is a labeled diagram of what Albert looks like:

Figure 12.1 – Albert the Robot

In the following sections, we will look at how I put Albert together.

Effectors – base, motors, and wheels

The robot base is a two-layer aluminum allow frame that I purchased at https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B093WDD9N5. This base uses Mecanum wheels, which have the unique ability to move the chassis not just forward and back, but sideways and at any angle. For video game fans, this sideways movement is sometimes called strafing. You will note that the wheels have smaller rollers mounted at 45-degree angles. These convert various inputs into multiple directions. Moving all four motors forward, not surprisingly, results...