The following are the steps to build T.A.R.A.S, our robot car. Your version of T.A.R.A.S may be built close to the one used in this book or you may make modifications as desired. For one thing, I am using a Raspberry Pi camera module with a longer lens (night-vision models have longer lenses). I am also using the Adafruit 16-Channel PWM/Servo HAT to drive the servos for the camera mount. You may choose to use another board or forgo the servos altogether and mount the camera in a fixed position.
One of my favorite robot backronyms is Vincent from the 1980s Disney movie The Black Hole. Vincent, or more accurately, V.I.N.CENT, stands for Vital Information Necessary Centralized. If you know the movie, you will know that V.I.N.CENT is quite clever and very polite. V.I.N.CENT is also a bit of a know-it-all and can be a little irritating at times.
I have included...