Co-authors:
I would like to thank my friend and fellow hacker, Josh Adams, for his assistance in several of my projects as well as his constant support and ideas, and for introducing me to the Arduino in the first place. He also wrote a chapter in this book on alternate control (Chapter 13), using your PC with a game-pad and wireless serial link to control a large robot (Arduino + Processing). Josh makes my projects more awesome with his mad coding skills and by keeping up with all the latest hacks. Thanks for all of your help—you are a true friend.
I would also like to thank a fellow Arduino hacker, Harald Molle, for contributing his time and the details of his complex project, the GPS-guided RoboBoat (Chapter 9). Harald graciously took time out of his schedule to write a chapter that I was having issues with. I made three (unsuccessful) boat hulls before finding Harald's project on the Arduino forums and discovering that he had already been through the same pitfalls that I was encountering. He concocted a brilliant design for a catamaran-style boat that is easy to build and holds a straight line in the water. Upon realizing that he knew far more about this project than I could hope to learn, I was thrilled that he was willing to share his experience.
Tech editors:
A special thanks to Guilherme Martins and Josh Adams for their time reviewing the book—your suggestions and feedback were greatly appreciated.
Editors:
A big thanks to Michelle Lowman for giving me the opportunity to write this book, Anita Castro for being patient despite the extra time needed to complete the book, James Markham, Frank Pohlmann, and Dominic Shakeshaft for their help and guidance, and the rest of the Apress team that helped make this book happen—writing your first book is not easy.
Family:
I would like to thank my wife, Melissa, for being so understanding and helpful during this process. I could not have written this book without your support—I love you! Lastly, I would like to thank my family for their support and prayers during this project.
The Arduino community:
The Arduino community was the single largest source of inspiration for the various projects in this book. When I first started learning about the Arduino and physical computing (back in 2008), I had never touched a microcontroller or programmed a computer before, and I was welcomed with open arms. Random people gave me code examples, project advice, ideas for additional features, and, most of all, support. In a society where everyone is trying to make a buck, it is nice to be a part of something awesome that you know you can participate in without spending any money (other than the inexpensive Arduino board itself).
I would like to call out a few specific robotics enthusiasts, makers, and electronics gurus that have contributed to my learning and consequently this book: thanks to Massimo Banzi, Tom Igoe, and the rest of the Arduino development team, Limor Fried (Ladyada.net), Nathan Seidle (SparkFun.com), David Cood (Robotroom.com), and Jordi Munoz and Chris Anderson (DIYdrones.com) for their excellent Arduino tutorials, projects, and contributions to the open source community. There are a few people who were personally helpful with specific questions, projects, and parts: Larry Barello, John Dingley, Shane Colton, and Bob Blick.
Thanks to my common-thread friends that listened to my ranting ideas and nonsense, checked out my prototypes, offered suggestions, and even supplied me with parts to test when I could not afford my own: Josh Adams, Anthony DiGiovanni, and Laird Foret.
Though I took many photos for this book of various parts and procedures, there were some that did not turn out as well as I hoped, and for those I had help. The following photos originated from my various parts suppliers, and I would like to thank them for their help:
SparkFun.com: 1-10, 1-21, 1-30, 2-22, 2-24, 2-26, 2-27, 2-28, 2-29, 3-20
Digikey.com: 1-15, 1-16, 1-17
PartsForScooters.com: 10-4, 12-8, 12-18
DimensionEngineering.com: 10-20, 11-14
Adafruit.com: 2-16
Pololu.com: 10-22
Electronics-Tutorials.ws: 1-3
DannyG.com: 1-9
RobotMarketplace.com: 12-7
DFRobots.com: 5-11
HarborFreightTools.com: 10-3
John-David Warren
My wife, Kristen, who has been so patient with me fiddling with robots; my son, Matthew, who just wants to play with them; and my daughter, Gracie, who I'll meet in person real soon now.
Josh Adams
Thanks to Chris Anderson and Jordi Munoz, from DIYdrones.com, for their excellent pioneering work in building autopilots, Jean Margail from http://water.resist.free.fr for his plans of the catamaran hulls, Matthias Wolbert for making a 3D model out of these plans, and Robert Herrmann for his troubleshooting advice. Lastly, I dedicate this to my wife, Jacqueline—she knows why.
Harald Molle