Differential Drive Robots

This book, Differential Drive Robots, A Primer for College Students, is aimed at introductory robotics courses in Universities and Colleges. It introduces the theory of robotic kinematics, a discussion of robot control architectures, sensors, navigation, and robot vision. It is based on a standard two-wheel differential drive robot system and is therefore applicable to many commercial and in-house robot kits. The material is informed by contemporary robot technology.

All software described in the book is non-commercial and freely downloadable from the internet.

The book emerged from the author's teaching a second year University robotics course. It contains a mix of theory, examples, and suggestions for computer code. Learning and teaching resources which accompany the book chapters are freely available from the author, details for which are in the book. This book forms part of a series 'Breakfast with Dr.C' that started when he was teaching at the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.

The author is currently Principal Lecturer Computing at the University of Worcester (UK) where he has been teaching for some twenty years. Prior to that he taught Physics at the Catholic Universiteit Leuven, Belgium. He is the author of over seventy academic journal and conference publications in computing, game design, and physics. His most recent work involved teaching elementary children to code using animated stories (Story Writing Coding).