First robot
Step 1 of 2 Outline published The outline is settled, the content isn't written yet.
A two-wheel robot that dodges walls on its own — and you can explain what every wire is for.
Tell me what's missing
- What you need before starting
- None. If you've never held a soldering iron, this is exactly the right starting point.
- Time
- About 6 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
- The complete plan, step by step, from unboxing to a robot that rolls
- The code for every step, commented line by line in French
- The wiring schematic — the same one that ships in the box
- The common failures, and how to read them instead of starting over
- Two changes to try once it works, to break the robot on purpose
How you know it's done
You set the robot on the floor and let go. It rolls, reaches a wall, turns before touching it. You run it again with a cushion instead of a wall: it turns later, and you can say why.
The outline
Every step ends with something you can watch work. That's the bottom line of each one.
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What's in the box
Recognize every part and understand its job before touching anything. We read the whole schematic first — faster than discovering it halfway through.
You can name every part without looking at the list.
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Soldering without burning anything
The iron, the solder, the movements. Plus the five mistakes that cost you a board — all of them made at least once by the person writing this.
A joint holds when you pull on the wire, and it shines.
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Making a motor turn
First line of code, first movement. We start from nothing moving and work out why it eventually does.
A wheel turns, stops, then runs the other way.
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Seeing the wall coming
The ultrasonic sensor: from a raw signal to a distance in centimetres. What it really measures, and what it misses.
A distance in centimetres shows on screen, and it changes when you move your hand in front of the sensor.
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Deciding on its own
The loop that turns a measurement into a turn. This is where the object stops obeying and starts reacting.
The robot backs up and turns when you put your hand in front, with you touching nothing else.
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When it doesn't work
Reading a problem instead of starting over. The most useful module in the course, and the one most tutorials skip.
You unplug one wire at random, and you find which one in under five minutes.
On your bench
- With the kit
- The Discovery Kit supplies the parts. The battery, wiring, hardware and soldering iron are not in it: they are in the list below.
- Without the kit
- The course works without buying the kit. The parts list on the kit's page doubles as a shopping list, and the parts exist at any electronics supplier. The schematic and the code live in the course, not only in the box.
The tools
- A soldering iron and solder
- A computer with a USB port — Windows, macOS or Linux
- A battery pack, and something to connect it with
- Wire cutters and a small screwdriver
- Two square metres of clear floor for the final run
The hardware
This kit has a courseDiscovery Kit — two-wheel robot
Your first robot. Arduino, two motors, a distance sensor, and everything needed to make it dodge walls on its own.
The robots
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.