There is a lot involved in building your own robot: sourcing adequate parts, knowing how to assemble them and then how to get the robot to do things by writing software. Buying a robot kit glosses over these steps as the parts are provided together with assembly instructions and often a software library to make programming simple. Going from building such a kit to your own robot can be quite a shock for this reason.
This is why this book is valuable. It covers a lot of ground! The author, Danny Staple, guides us through the process of building a wheeled robot without relying on a kit. Instead, Danny describes the components required and provides some recommendations but allows for variation. Step by step we are shown how to set up a Raspberry Pi and control motors & servos, read inputs from distance sensors, line sensors, and use the Raspberry Pi camera. Everything, hardware and software, is explained from scratch without assuming any prior knowledge and in an easy to read style. Instead of relying on a library of code Danny shows us how to implement everything required a small feature at a time. He also explains the principles behind why he structures the code as he does; so we learn how to extend the software on our own without it becoming a hard-to-maintain mess.
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