Chapter 1. Your Shield-Bot’s Brain

Parallax Inc.’s Shield-Bot robot is the focus of the activities, projects, and contests in this book.  The Board of Education (BOE) Shield mounts on a metal chassis with servo motors and wheels.  An Arduino Uno module—the programmable brain—plugs in underneath the BOE Shield.

The activities in this tutorial will guide you through building the mechanical parts and circuits that make the BOE Shield-Bot work. Then, you’ll write simple programs that make the Arduino and your robot do four essential robotic tasks:

1. Monitor sensors to detect the world around it
2. Make decisions based on what it senses
3. Control its motion (by operating the motors that make its wheels turn)
4. Exchange information with its roboticist (that will be you!)