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Learn The robots

Connected robot

Step 2 of 2 Outline published The outline is settled, the content isn't written yet.

Your robot hosts its own control page. You drive it from your phone, and nothing leaves your network — and you can prove it.

Tell me what's missing
Salim Robot standing, hammer in hand
What you need before starting
« First robot » helps, but isn't required. You should be comfortable with a soldering iron.
Time
About 8 hours, at your pace
Format
Not settled yet. Video, text or both: it gets written here before the course ships, not after.

What you leave with

  1. The complete plan, from the first upload to the control page
  2. The ESP32 code and the interface code, commented in French
  3. The driving interface in a single file, no dependencies, no framework
  4. The wiring schematic for both sensors, pin by pin
  5. The method for checking yourself that the robot talks to no one else
  6. What to decide before the Wi-Fi drops, and the code that enforces it

How you know it's done

Your phone opens a page served by the robot, and the robot moves when you press. You cut the Wi-Fi mid-run: it stops instead of carrying on, because that is what you decided.

The outline

Every step ends with something you can watch work. That's the bottom line of each one.

  1. From Arduino to ESP32

    What changes, what stays the same. Why an $8 board does what a computer did twenty years ago.

    45 min

    The board's LED blinks at the rate you wrote.

  2. The robot becomes a server

    Hosting a real web page from the board. Three hundred lines, and your robot has an address.

    1 h 30

    You type an address in your browser and a page arrives — it came from the board, not from the internet.

  3. Driving with your thumb

    The control interface, and why it fits in a single file. Same principles as this site: no dependencies, no framework.

    1 h 30

    The robot moves while your thumb is on the button, and stops when you lift it.

  4. What never leaves your place

    The local network, what it protects, and how to check for yourself that a connected device isn't talking to anyone else.

    1 h

    You unplug your internet connection, and the robot still answers.

  5. Following a line

    The second sensor, and the moment two inputs beat one. The robot stops groping around.

    1 h 30

    The robot follows a loop of black tape all the way round without you touching it.

  6. When the Wi-Fi drops

    The failures you don't see coming: reconnection, lost commands, the robot that keeps going alone. What to decide before it happens.

    1 h 45

    You switch the router off mid-run, and the robot stops dead.

On your bench

With the kit
The Connected Kit supplies the ESP32 board, both sensors and the chassis. The soldering iron, battery and wiring are still yours to bring.
Without the kit
Any ESP32 board will do, and the chassis can be a plank of wood. The course names the pin behind each connection rather than the colour of the wire, so you can build yours differently.

The tools

  • A soldering iron and solder
  • A computer, a USB cable, and a phone on the same network
  • A Wi-Fi network you control — a café's will not work
  • A battery pack: a robot tethered to a USB cable does not get far
  • Matte black tape to lay down the line it follows

The hardware

This kit has a course

Connected Kit — ESP32 and Wi-Fi

The same robot, but drivable from your phone. ESP32, Wi-Fi, and a web interface served by the robot itself.

The robots

Before this one

First robot

From a sealed box to a robot that rolls and dodges walls. With no soldering experience.

How this course is made

The outline and the first drafts are built with AI tools. Every step is then assembled, tested on a real robot and corrected by hand before publication. That's the part that takes time, and it's the part that counts. We say so because it's the business we're in: showing how we use these tools beats selling them in the abstract.