Chapter 1. Building Robots with Lo-tech Materials

When you think about robots, you probably imagine drones, self-driving cars, or humanoid robots like Atlas or Asimo. Many of these more serious robots start their costs at thousands of dollars, and there is no real upper limit (Atlas costs over a $1M, for example). It is possible, however, to build small, interesting robots with a few inexpensive electronic components coupled with some materials you can readily find at home.

One of the great things about NodeBots is being able to prototype rapidly. The combination of an approachable language like JavaScript with friendly hardware such as Arduino means you can explore ideas and see how things work. Being able to prototype and ...

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