Exploring the Raspberry Pi's capabilities
As we saw in Chapter 2, Exploring Robot Building Blocks – Code and Electronics, the controllers used for a robot can be one of the most critical choices you make. This will determine what kinds of inputs and outputs you have, what the power requirements of your electronics will be, what types of sensors you will be able to use, and what code you will run. Changing a controller could mean rewriting the code, redesigning where the controller would fit, and changing the power requirements.
The Raspberry Pi is a range of small computers designed for use in education. Having I/O pins for connecting it to custom hardware, while being a complete computer, makes it a favorite of makers (a term for people who like to make things for a hobby, like robots and gadgets). This is helped by the relatively cheap cost and small size of a microcontroller compared to standard computing devices. All Raspberry Pi models have abilities including attaching...
