It’s been a few months since I purchased the Arduino Parallax robot kit. It’s a mix of hardware and software with a “following the bouncing ball”tutorial on how to bring the robot to life.

The robot is simple. It’s a three wheeled single axle chassis with “collision detectors” mounted on the front to help it change directions when it comes in contact with a stationary object. Basically a Rumba without a vacuum, ergo value.

I’ve always loved robots and electronics as a kid. Loved it even more in college when I had to take two years worth of electrical engineering. However, I never got the opportunity to get my hands dirty physically building something electronic. The Arduino Parallax robot kit has scratched that itch.

I’m guessing I’m about 2/3 of the way through the initial build out, but my observations thus far

• I love the “shield” concept from Arduino
• The Parallax BOE (Board of Education) shield is awesome
• The “pseudo” C code from Arduino isn’t bad, but it’s not great
• My daughters LOVE working on this robot. They’ve named her Eve.

I look forward to wrapping this up in the next few weekends and then starting my combat drone from competitive racing.

The progress

It’s still early in the process, but the chassis, peziohertz speaker, and the software are all functioning.
The two Servo’s are calibrated and running.