Search icon CANCEL
Subscription
0
Cart icon
Your Cart (0 item)
Close icon
You have no products in your basket yet
Save more on your purchases! discount-offer-chevron-icon
Savings automatically calculated. No voucher code required.
Arrow left icon
Explore Products
Best Sellers
New Releases
Books
Videos
Audiobooks
Learning Hub
Newsletter Hub
Free Learning
Arrow right icon
timer SALE ENDS IN
0 Days
:
00 Hours
:
00 Minutes
:
00 Seconds
BeagleBone Robotic Projects
BeagleBone Robotic Projects

BeagleBone Robotic Projects: Developer or hobbyist, you'll love the way this book helps you turn the BeagleBone Black into a working robot. From listening and speaking to seeing and moving, we'll show you how – step by step.

Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Richard Grimmett
Arrow right icon
$19.99 per month
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4 (13 Ratings)
Paperback Dec 2013 244 pages 1st Edition
eBook
$25.99 $28.99
Paperback
$48.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at $19.99p/m
Arrow left icon
Profile Icon Richard Grimmett
Arrow right icon
$19.99 per month
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4 (13 Ratings)
Paperback Dec 2013 244 pages 1st Edition
eBook
$25.99 $28.99
Paperback
$48.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at $19.99p/m
eBook
$25.99 $28.99
Paperback
$48.99
Subscription
Free Trial
Renews at $19.99p/m

What do you get with a Packt Subscription?

Free for first 7 days. $19.99 p/m after that. Cancel any time!
Product feature icon Unlimited ad-free access to the largest independent learning library in tech. Access this title and thousands more!
Product feature icon 50+ new titles added per month, including many first-to-market concepts and exclusive early access to books as they are being written.
Product feature icon Innovative learning tools, including AI book assistants, code context explainers, and text-to-speech.
Product feature icon Thousands of reference materials covering every tech concept you need to stay up to date.
Subscribe now
View plans & pricing
Table of content icon View table of contents Preview book icon Preview Book

BeagleBone Robotic Projects

Left arrow icon Right arrow icon

Key benefits

  • Get to grips with robotic systems.
  • Communicate with your robot and teach it to detect and respond to its environment.
  • Develop walking, rolling, swimming, and flying robots.

Description

Thanks to new, inexpensive microcontrollers, robotics has become far more accessible than it was in the past. These microcontrollers provide a whole new set of capabilities to allow even the most inexperienced users to make amazingly complicated projects. Beaglebone is effectively a small, light, cheap computer in a similar vein to Raspberry Pi and Arduino. It has all of the extensibility of today's desktop machines, but without the bulk, expense, or noise. This project guide provides step-by-step instructions to allow anyone to use this new, low cost platform in some fascinating robotics projects. By the time you are finished, your projects will be able to see, speak, listen, detect their surroundings, and move in a variety of amazing ways. The book begins with unpacking and powering up the components.This will include guidance on what to purchase and how to connect it all successfully–and a primer on programming the BeagleBone Black. Chapter by chapter, we will add additional software functionality available from the open source community, including how to make the system see using a webcam, how to hear using a microphone, and how to speak using a speaker. We then add hardware to make your robots move–including wheeled and legged examples–as well as covering how to add sonar sensors to avoid or find objects, plus wireless control to make your robot truly autonomous. Adding GPS allows the robot to find itself. Finally the book covers how to integrate all of this functionality so that it can all work together, before developing the most impressive robotics projects: those that can sail, fly, and explore underwater.

Who is this book for?

This book is for anyone who is curious about using new, low-cost hardware to create robotic projects that have previously been the domain of research labs, major universities or Defence departments. Some programming experience would be useful, but if you know how to use a personal computer, you can use this book to construct far more complex systems than you would have thought possible.

What you will learn

  • Unbox, power up, and configure the BeagleBone black with Ubuntu.
  • Install speech recognition software to issue voice commands to your projects.
  • Set up a webcam and a computer vision toolkit for distinguishing objects.
  • Communicate with external motors to enable you robotics projects to move in a variety of ways.
  • Process audio signals like music or other sounds.
  • Add GPS capability to your system so it will know where it is.
  • Use the building blocks you have learned to create complex robotic projects that can combine all of these features and more.

Product Details

Country selected
Publication date, Length, Edition, Language, ISBN-13
Publication date : Dec 26, 2013
Length: 244 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783559329
Category :
Tools :

What do you get with a Packt Subscription?

Free for first 7 days. $19.99 p/m after that. Cancel any time!
Product feature icon Unlimited ad-free access to the largest independent learning library in tech. Access this title and thousands more!
Product feature icon 50+ new titles added per month, including many first-to-market concepts and exclusive early access to books as they are being written.
Product feature icon Innovative learning tools, including AI book assistants, code context explainers, and text-to-speech.
Product feature icon Thousands of reference materials covering every tech concept you need to stay up to date.
Subscribe now
View plans & pricing

Product Details

Publication date : Dec 26, 2013
Length: 244 pages
Edition : 1st
Language : English
ISBN-13 : 9781783559329
Category :
Tools :

Packt Subscriptions

See our plans and pricing
Modal Close icon
$19.99 billed monthly
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Simple pricing, no contract
$199.99 billed annually
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Choose a DRM-free eBook or Video every month to keep
Feature tick icon PLUS own as many other DRM-free eBooks or Videos as you like for just $5 each
Feature tick icon Exclusive print discounts
$279.99 billed in 18 months
Feature tick icon Unlimited access to Packt's library of 7,000+ practical books and videos
Feature tick icon Constantly refreshed with 50+ new titles a month
Feature tick icon Exclusive Early access to books as they're written
Feature tick icon Solve problems while you work with advanced search and reference features
Feature tick icon Offline reading on the mobile app
Feature tick icon Choose a DRM-free eBook or Video every month to keep
Feature tick icon PLUS own as many other DRM-free eBooks or Videos as you like for just $5 each
Feature tick icon Exclusive print discounts

Frequently bought together


Stars icon
Total $ 130.97
Mastering Beaglebone Robotics
$48.99
BeagleBone Robotic Projects
$48.99
Building a Home Security System with BeagleBone
$32.99
Total $ 130.97 Stars icon

Table of Contents

11 Chapters
Getting Started with the BeagleBone Black Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Programming the BeagleBone Black Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Providing Speech Input and Output Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Allowing the BeagleBone Black to See Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Making the Unit Mobile – Controlling Wheeled Movement Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Making the Unit Very Mobile – Controlling Legged Movement Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Avoiding Obstacles Using Sensors Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Going Truly Mobile – Remote Control of Your Robot Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
Using a GPS Receiver to Locate Your Robot Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
System Dynamics Chevron down icon Chevron up icon
By Land, Sea, and Air Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Customer reviews

Top Reviews
Rating distribution
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Empty star icon 4
(13 Ratings)
5 star 38.5%
4 star 30.8%
3 star 23.1%
2 star 7.7%
1 star 0%
Filter icon Filter
Top Reviews

Filter reviews by




Tom Hall Jan 26, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
"This book is designed for the informed beginner." is a quote from the author. I think it pretty accurately describes where I am with the Beaglebone Black. Actually, it is not too far from where I am with Linux as well.The book title suggests that it is for those who have an interest in robotics. I didn't have any interest in robotics when I started, but I do now. I just ordered a Sparkfun 2 wheeled robot platform and a couple of Pololu motor controllers with the intend of building a few of the projects that i didn't have the parts for.The Beaglebone Black can be frustrating - an Arduino clone it is not. But, it is a complete Linux 1Ghz computer with a lot of I/O. The default Angstrom distribution is not as close to being as stable as the Debian Wheezy distruibution supplied with the Raspberry Pi. (As of the time of this review the BBB is likely to get a default Debian distribution very soon.) Mr. Grimmett overcomes this by having you load an Ubuntu distribution on a sd card and boot from it instead. I used a 16GB card and have room to spare after reading the instructions on how to reclaim the unused space on page 89.I liked this book. It was almost a perfect fit for me. I knew the BBB could do lots of things but never really had any luck with some of the online tutorials that I tried. Because of the book I got my USB camera to work, showing video via OpenCV. With one of those cheapie USB sound cards and a Logitech headset I was able to record and play sounds via the ALSA library. I even tried a little speech recognition. This book is very good at showcasing the BBB's built in capabilities and actually getting them to work. If you are really interested, Mr. Grimmett will also show you how you can operate your Beaglebone Black by land, by air or by sea(above and beneath).The book covers programming with Python but is by no means a tutorial on the subject. That statement is pretty much true for robotics as well. Most of the robotics are made of simple to use USB type controllers for motors and servos and other sensors. Simple to use doesn't mean cheap! There is no doubt other ways of skinning this cat but I believe the author would have caused himself no end of grief by trying to describe a cheaper, more "solder it yourself" type of construction. To be honest, I had no idea you could build a robot by plugging in a bunch of controllers into a powered USB hub.So, should you buy this book? Well, if you're an "informed beginner", by all means. I found it a lot of fun - not only getting my Beaglebone Black to do something but giving me more much needed confidence with Linux. I am also looking forward to the day my robot parts arrive. There is a lot to get from this book.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Mbelalco Dec 31, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Good
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Joseph G Hafner May 03, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Most robotics books stop at the point of hooking up sensors and servos on a wheeled platform, and demonstrate obstacle avoidance. With power of the BeagleBone Black available, this book starts with teaching your platform to speak, hear, and see, then become mobile. Then we explore multiple types of platforms including aerial and waterborne. What fun! Very nicely done.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
CNC guy Feb 03, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
First ImpressionsDisclaimer: I recognized the author of this book as a frequent participant in the BeagleBoard mailing list. Packt Publishing provided me with a copy of this book so that I could do this book review.I liked this book almost immediately. The mission oriented chapter organization is good. Explanations are clear and concise. Good references are given for most topics if you want to get more in depth than what is covered in the book.What the book coversThe book is organized in 11 chapters. The first chapter has a nice getting started with the BeagleBone Black (BBB). Chapter 2 briefly covers programming the BBB in Python with an even shorter intro to C++. In the third chapter things start to get good with an introduction to adding speech and speech recognition to the BBB.The fourth chapter tells you how to connect a USB camera to the BBB. It also covers using the OpenCV framework for pattern recognition and object tracking. Chapters 5 and 6 let you take your BBB mobile by adding wheels, tracks, and legs.Chapter 7 covers adding sensors to keep your robots out of trouble. The eighth chapter concerns remote control of your robots. Chapter 9 is about letting your BBB find itself with GPS guidance.Chapter 10 tries to bring all the pieces together with a discussion of system dynamics. The final chapter discusses air and water vehicles for those not content to stay on the ground.My favorite partsI liked seeing the use of a full editor, emacs in the opening chapter. It seems that everyone is using a light editor like nano for books and presentations. This book covers many aspects that must be considered in any real world robotics project. For some reason, I thought the sailboat presented in the last chapter was particularly neat. It is also good to see people really making use of the BBB hardware and not just blinking LEDs.The part I'm on the fence aboutThe book uses USB devices exclusively. On the one hand, this allows you to easily connect devices without doing any real wiring. It also allows you to focus on the functionality and less on the interface. On the other hand, this requires the use of a powered USB hub. The BBB has 92 pins on its expansion headers. It seems a shame to let all this I/O go to waste while funneling all the traffic through USB.My wish listAs I said, I really liked this book. There are two things I would have liked to see in this book. While the exclusive use of USB devices is probably OK for the book. It would have been nice to have some coverage of using the BBB expansion headers as well. This would help readers who want to take things to the next level after reading the book.My second item would be a complete robot project. I realize this is a tall order. All the pieces you need to build a robot are in the book. A complete robot might encourage readers to actually build something instead of just reading about it.[...]
Amazon Verified review Amazon
DS Jan 27, 2014
Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon Full star icon 5
Truly a gem for anyone interested in robotics projects using BeagleBone. This book has saved me uncountable hours of research into common challenges for robotics projects using this SBC. I highly recommend it.
Amazon Verified review Amazon
Get free access to Packt library with over 7500+ books and video courses for 7 days!
Start Free Trial

FAQs

What is included in a Packt subscription? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

A subscription provides you with full access to view all Packt and licnesed content online, this includes exclusive access to Early Access titles. Depending on the tier chosen you can also earn credits and discounts to use for owning content

How can I cancel my subscription? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

To cancel your subscription with us simply go to the account page - found in the top right of the page or at https://subscription.packtpub.com/my-account/subscription - From here you will see the ‘cancel subscription’ button in the grey box with your subscription information in.

What are credits? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Credits can be earned from reading 40 section of any title within the payment cycle - a month starting from the day of subscription payment. You also earn a Credit every month if you subscribe to our annual or 18 month plans. Credits can be used to buy books DRM free, the same way that you would pay for a book. Your credits can be found in the subscription homepage - subscription.packtpub.com - clicking on ‘the my’ library dropdown and selecting ‘credits’.

What happens if an Early Access Course is cancelled? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Projects are rarely cancelled, but sometimes it's unavoidable. If an Early Access course is cancelled or excessively delayed, you can exchange your purchase for another course. For further details, please contact us here.

Where can I send feedback about an Early Access title? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

If you have any feedback about the product you're reading, or Early Access in general, then please fill out a contact form here and we'll make sure the feedback gets to the right team. 

Can I download the code files for Early Access titles? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

We try to ensure that all books in Early Access have code available to use, download, and fork on GitHub. This helps us be more agile in the development of the book, and helps keep the often changing code base of new versions and new technologies as up to date as possible. Unfortunately, however, there will be rare cases when it is not possible for us to have downloadable code samples available until publication.

When we publish the book, the code files will also be available to download from the Packt website.

How accurate is the publication date? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

The publication date is as accurate as we can be at any point in the project. Unfortunately, delays can happen. Often those delays are out of our control, such as changes to the technology code base or delays in the tech release. We do our best to give you an accurate estimate of the publication date at any given time, and as more chapters are delivered, the more accurate the delivery date will become.

How will I know when new chapters are ready? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

We'll let you know every time there has been an update to a course that you've bought in Early Access. You'll get an email to let you know there has been a new chapter, or a change to a previous chapter. The new chapters are automatically added to your account, so you can also check back there any time you're ready and download or read them online.

I am a Packt subscriber, do I get Early Access? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Yes, all Early Access content is fully available through your subscription. You will need to have a paid for or active trial subscription in order to access all titles.

How is Early Access delivered? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Early Access is currently only available as a PDF or through our online reader. As we make changes or add new chapters, the files in your Packt account will be updated so you can download them again or view them online immediately.

How do I buy Early Access content? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Early Access is a way of us getting our content to you quicker, but the method of buying the Early Access course is still the same. Just find the course you want to buy, go through the check-out steps, and you’ll get a confirmation email from us with information and a link to the relevant Early Access courses.

What is Early Access? Chevron down icon Chevron up icon

Keeping up to date with the latest technology is difficult; new versions, new frameworks, new techniques. This feature gives you a head-start to our content, as it's being created. With Early Access you'll receive each chapter as it's written, and get regular updates throughout the product's development, as well as the final course as soon as it's ready.We created Early Access as a means of giving you the information you need, as soon as it's available. As we go through the process of developing a course, 99% of it can be ready but we can't publish until that last 1% falls in to place. Early Access helps to unlock the potential of our content early, to help you start your learning when you need it most. You not only get access to every chapter as it's delivered, edited, and updated, but you'll also get the finalized, DRM-free product to download in any format you want when it's published. As a member of Packt, you'll also be eligible for our exclusive offers, including a free course every day, and discounts on new and popular titles.