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You're reading from  Arduino Robotic Projects

Product typeBook
Published inAug 2014
Reading LevelIntermediate
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ISBN-139781783989829
Edition1st Edition
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Author (1)
Richard Grimmett
Richard Grimmett
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Richard Grimmett

Richard Grimmett has more fun that should be allowed working on robotics projects while teaching Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Brigham Young University Idaho. He has a Bachelors and Masters degree in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Leadership Studies. He also has 26 years of experience in the Radar and Telecommunications industries, and even has one of the original brick phones. He has written books on the basics of using the BeagleBone Black for robotics projects, and another for the Raspberry PI and yet another for the Arduino.
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The basics of DC motor


Before you get started with connecting everything and making it all move, let's spend some time understanding some of the basics of DC motor control. Whether you chose a two or four wheeled mobile platform or a tracked platform, the basic movement control is the same. The unit moves by engaging the motors. If the desired direction is straight, the motors are run at the same speed. If you want to turn the unit, the motors are run at different speeds. The unit can actually turn in a circle if you run one motor forward and one backward.

DC motors are fairly straightforward devices. The speed and direction of the motor is controlled by the magnitude and polarity of the voltage applied to its terminals. The higher the voltage, the faster the motor will turn. If you reverse the polarity of the voltage, you can reverse the direction the motor is turning.

However, the magnitude and polarity of the voltage is not the only factor that is important when you think about controlling...

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Arduino Robotic Projects
Published in: Aug 2014Publisher: ISBN-13: 9781783989829

Author (1)

author image
Richard Grimmett

Richard Grimmett has more fun that should be allowed working on robotics projects while teaching Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at Brigham Young University Idaho. He has a Bachelors and Masters degree in Electrical Engineering and a PhD in Leadership Studies. He also has 26 years of experience in the Radar and Telecommunications industries, and even has one of the original brick phones. He has written books on the basics of using the BeagleBone Black for robotics projects, and another for the Raspberry PI and yet another for the Arduino.
Read more about Richard Grimmett