Arduino Robotic Projects: Build awesome and complex robots with the power of Arduino.

If you are using a newer version of Microsoft Windows and the Arduino Uno, when you plug Arduino into the system, it will automatically try to install the drivers. If the device fails to install, you may have to tell it where the drivers are. You will know when this happens—you will be prompted with an error message saying Device driver software was not successfully installed. If you get this error, follow the directions at http://Arduino.cc/en/Guide/Windows#.UxoWXPldUvt.

When your drivers are installed, you should see the following device when you navigate to Start Menu | Devices and Printers:

In this case, the device is connected to COM port 23. Note down the COM port Arduino is connected to as you'll need that in a minute. If you are using an Apple Mac or Linux machine, follow the instructions at arduino.cc/en/Guide/MacOSX for Mac and playground.arduino.cc/Learning/Linux for Linux on how to determine your USB port connection.

Now that the device is installed, you can run the IDE. Select the IDE icon that should have been installed on the desktop as shown in the following screenshot:

When you select this icon, the IDE should start and you should see something like the following screenshot:

This is the environment you will use to develop your applications. The IDE will then make it easy to compile the code, upload it to the device, and run it.

Setting the IDE to your board

First, you'll need to set the IDE to create code for the proper processor because different Arduino boards have slightly different hardware configurations. Fortunately, the IDE lets you set that by choosing the correct board. To do this, navigate to Tools | Board | Arduino Uno as shown in the following screenshot:

Selecting the proper COM port

The next step is to select the proper COM port. To do this, navigate to Tools | Serial Port | COM23 (the port you noted earlier), as shown in the following screenshot:

The IDE should now...

If you are using Mega, it will be very similar. Connecting the unit via USB and then navigating to Start Menu | Devices and Printers will show the following device:

Note that in this case, Mega is connected to COM port 24. The port that Arduino will be connected to is selected by the computer and is not the same for all Arduinos. The only difference between the instructions for using Mega and Uno is that you will need to set the correct board type for Mega. To do this, navigate to Tools | Board | Arduino Mega 2560 or Mega ADK as shown in the following screenshot:

If you have a different COM port number, make sure you set that by navigating to Tools | Serial Port. You can now upload the Blink code, and the orange LED should be blinking on Mega.

When connecting the FLORA device, you'll need to have the Adafruit version of the IDE installed. You can download this from learn.adafruit.com/getting-started-with-flora/download-software. Follow the directions on this site to download and install the IDE. Since the FLORA device is not standard Arduino, this will add another selection to the Board type for the Arduino IDE.

Installing the Adafruit drivers

When plugging in the device, if it fails to install, you may have to tell it where to find the drivers. You will know if this happens—you will get an error message saying Device driver software was not successfully installed. If you get this error, follow the directions at http://Arduino.cc/en/Guide/Windows#.UxoWXPldUvt; only point your driver to the directory from where you downloaded the Adafruit IDE. For example, in my case, I am running 64 bit Windows, so I will select windows as shown in the following screenshot:

It will probably complain about an...

Using a Mac or a Windows machine is absolutely fine; however, you'll just need to follow a couple of different steps. First, as noted earlier, download and install the Mac software from http://Arduino.cc/en/guide/macOSX#.UxpobfldVHI. When you plug in your Arduino Uno or Mega, the system will recognize it and establish a connection. The green power LED should turn on. Now, open the Arduino IDE and select the proper board as shown previously.

You will also need to select the serial port. When you navigate to the Tools | Serial Port, you should see the following screenshot:

Select the option that begins with tty.usbmodem. You may need to remove Arduino to see if you have other devices connected to the port and how this selection changes to identify which port is connected to Arduino. You'll then be connected to the device. You should now be able to open the Blink example, run the code, and see the orange LED flash.

If you are using FLORA, Gemma, or Trinket...

You've completed the next stage of your journey. You have your Arduino up and talking to your external computer and you know how to connect to the IDE to develop code. Your next step will be to learn some programming basics so that you can start doing all sorts of amazing things with your Arduino. You'll be able to build robots that can move and sense their environment.