Welcome to robotics

Welcome

A robot is a machine that can sense the world, make a decision, and act on it, on its own. From factory arms to delivery drones to a line-following toy car, every robot does the same three things: sense, think, act.

Robotics brings together electronics, mechanics, and code. In this course you will learn how robots are built and how they think, and you will even write and run the kind of logic a robot uses, right in your browser. No hardware needed to start.

By the end you will understand:

• What makes something a robot
• The main parts: sensors, actuators, and a controller
• How a robot turns a sensor reading into an action
• How to plan your own first build

Practice

Look around you. Name two machines that sense and react on their own, for example an automatic tap or a phone that rotates its screen. What does each one sense, and what does it do in response?