We’ve been going over how to write code and change things like the LCD screen using code- now let’s take a moment to talk about how the robots actually use that code to do stuff.
Here’s what we’ll be covering on this page:
Inputs
An input is any way that a robot or computer takes information into its system. (A way to put information inside, makes sense, right?) Really there are three main types of input that people talk about:- Sensors
- Computer chips
- Interfaces
Outputs
An output is anything that allows a robot to change the physical world. This may be something pretty obvious, such as a motor that moves the robot around in the world. Then again, it may not be so obvious to us humans, like the infrared light that Sparki sometimes emits. Outputs come in many different forms- it’s actually easier to list how robots output than the actual parts that do the outputting since there are so many different types! Here are the main categories of actions that robots do with outputs:- Movement- with motors, servos and engines
- Sound- with buzzers, speakers, mp3 units and sonic sensors
- Light- with LEDs and infrared emitters (which are really just fancy LEDs)
- Wireless communication- with radios
Communication
Robots can communicate in a whole bunch of different ways. Communication is also usually a combination of both input and output. The robot listens to hear incoming communication and sends out communication using an output. Some robots only have one way communication because they only need to listen or speak. There are many different ways that robots communicate. Some require wires while others are wireless. Here’s a short list of some of the ways that robots communicate with each other:- Over wires- plain old wires, USB or fiber optics
- Simple radios
- Bluetooth– these are actually just radios with some software
- WiFi- a wireless connection to the internet
- Light- like the fiber optics above (but without the wires to hold it) or using lasers