Welcome

Thank you for purchasing the MEAP for Robotics for Programmers.

I want to congratulate and at the same time warn you that this may very well be the beginning of a life-long passion. I can still vividly remember when I first got in touch with robotics more than 15 years ago, after having been programming for more than a decade already. Robot software is (just) software. However, only robots create this unique intimate connection between virtual worlds residing in computers and the real world around us. You will very soon learn why this is the case, what it entails and how you can participate in it.

You do not require any prior experience with robotics nor with related fields such as physics, mechanics, electronics or control. I do assume you know how to read and write Python code at an intermediate level including basic object-oriented programming (OOP) constructs such as classes and inheritance. You should also be familiar with the basics of Linux and its command line interface. The same goes for generic software tools such as git and ssh together with having a conceptual understanding of computer networking.

You will learn, step by step, how to conceptualize and design robot software systems, break them down into their building blocks, implement these core robot software components and combine them into a working overall solution.