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You're reading from  Learn Robotics Programming - Second Edition

Product typeBook
Published inFeb 2021
PublisherPackt
ISBN-139781839218804
Edition2nd Edition
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Danny Staple
Danny Staple
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Danny Staple

Danny Staple builds robots and gadgets as a hobbyist, makes videos about his work with robots, and attends community events such as PiWars and Arduino Day. He has been a professional Python programmer, later moving into DevOps, since 2009, and a software engineer since 2000. He has worked with embedded systems, including embedded Linux systems, throughout the majority of his career. He has been a mentor at a local CoderDojo, where he taught how to code with Python. He has run Lego Robotics clubs with Mindstorms. He has also developed Bounce!, a visual programming language targeted at teaching code using the NodeMCU IoT platform. The robots he has built with his children include TankBot, SkittleBot (now the Pi Wars robot), ArmBot, and SpiderBot.
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Limitations of listening for speech on a robot

Before we start to build this, we should consider what we are going to make. Should the speaker and microphone be on the robot or somewhere else? Will the processing be local or in the cloud?

Here are some considerations to keep in mind:

  • Noise: A robot with motors is a noisy environment. Having a microphone anywhere near the motors will make it close to useless.
  • Power: The voice assistant is continuously listening. The robot has many demands for power already with the other sensors that are running on it. This power demand applies both in terms of battery power and the CPU power needed.
  • Size and physical location: The speaker and voice HAT would add height and wiring complications to an already busy robot.

A microphone and speaker combination could be on a stalk for a large robot – a tall standoff with a second Raspberry Pi there. But this is unsuitable for this small and simple robot. We will create a...

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Learn Robotics Programming - Second Edition
Published in: Feb 2021Publisher: PacktISBN-13: 9781839218804

Author (1)

author image
Danny Staple

Danny Staple builds robots and gadgets as a hobbyist, makes videos about his work with robots, and attends community events such as PiWars and Arduino Day. He has been a professional Python programmer, later moving into DevOps, since 2009, and a software engineer since 2000. He has worked with embedded systems, including embedded Linux systems, throughout the majority of his career. He has been a mentor at a local CoderDojo, where he taught how to code with Python. He has run Lego Robotics clubs with Mindstorms. He has also developed Bounce!, a visual programming language targeted at teaching code using the NodeMCU IoT platform. The robots he has built with his children include TankBot, SkittleBot (now the Pi Wars robot), ArmBot, and SpiderBot.
Read more about Danny Staple