Resources: Physical Computing
Physical Computing
Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Wearable Computing, E-Textiles, LEGO, and Robotics
Arduino
- Arduino website - Open source electronics prototyping platform and robotics controller for interactive projects.
- Make Magazine Arduino - Videos, project ideas, how-tos, kits, parts, and blog posts about what people are doing around the world with the Arduino.
- Programming Arduino: Getting Started with Sketches - By Simon Monk. Clear, easy-to-follow downloadable examples show you how to program Arduino in C. This is a must have book for learning to use the Arduino.
- Getting Started with Arduino - A handy little guide to getting started on Arduino by Massimo Banzi
- Make Magazine Arduino - Videos, project ideas, how-tos, kits, parts, and blog posts about what people are doing around the world with the Arduino.
- Super Awesome Sylvia’s Simple Arduino Projects - Fun video tutorials for two simple Arduino projects
- Modkit - An iconic programming environment for controlling Arduino, Lilypad, and a number of other popular microcontrollers
- Instructables Arduino Projects - Offers a number of Arduino projects at varying levels of complexity.
- HacknMod Arduino Projects - HacknMod specializes in projects that “mod” (modify) one kind of thing into another. For example, projects that mod an Xbox Kinect into a virtual piano or motion sensing interface.
Wearable computing, e-textiles
- Lilypad Arduino – A special Arduino board for projects using textiles and wearable electronics.
- LilyPond – Lilypad and other e-textile projects and workshop ideas from the inventors of the Lilypad
- Arduino Wearables – by Tony Olsson. This book is a project-based introduction to wearable computing, prototyping, and smart materials using the Arduino platform. Each of the ten chapters takes you all the way from idea to finished project, gradually increasing in complexity and challenge.
- Getting hands-on with soft circuits – An e-textile workshop facilitators guide by Emily Lovell (e-book)
- Fashioning Technology – Syuzi Pakhchyan is an experience designer whose work investigates the intersection between code, cloth and culture. If you like the blog, you might also like her book.
- Soft Circuit Saturdays – Tutorials and project ideas very suitable for kids from Angela, a maker in New England.
- talk2myShirt – News, blogs, and projects using wearable electronics. Some of the projects are very technical, but well worth looking at for inspiration.
- How To Get What You Want – This website collects projects, global workshops and events, references, tutorials, and more for wearable technology and soft circuits. It has a unique section on techniques that aren’t finished projects, but might spark ideas.
Raspberry Pi
- Raspberry Pi Foundation – Main website for all things Raspberry Pi
- Make Magazine Raspberry Pi – Many projects, ideas, and resources for using the Raspberry Pi
- Raspberry Pi Quick Start Guide – Even if you are an “I don’t read instructions” kind of person, you should at least look at this 3 page illustrated quick start guide for the Raspberry Pi.
- Raspberry Pi Education Manual – Written by a team of UK teachers from Computing at School (CAS) available at the Pi Store or as a PDF.
LEGO Engineering
- Fred Martin’s Art of LEGO – Fred Martin, the engineer behind the RCX brick, wrote a terrific paper explaining LEGO engineering principles.
- The Art of LEGO Posters – One-page color photos illustrating commonly used LEGO mechanisms. Well-suited for classroom posters.
- The Unofficial LEGO Technic Builders Guide – A new full-color guide to building machines out of LEGO Technic! Mechanical principles are explained clearly.
- The LEGO Technic Idea Book – Fantastic Contraptions – Yoshihito Isogawa’s three magnificent wordless books of LEGO Technic project ideas are like the holy books of LEGO construction. There are enough ideas contained within to keep you building for years!
- The LEGO Technic Idea Book – Wheeled Wonders – More amazing LEGO Technic ideas.
- The LEGO Technic Idea Book – Simple Machines – Even more LEGO Technic projects. You need all three!
- Lego Crazy Action Contraptions – Great, simple LEGO machine projects with mechanical concepts that may generalized into larger personal projects.
- Motion models – These invaluable step-by-step pictorials demonstrate how LEGO machines may be used to generate motion in a range of ways required in robotics projects.
- LEGO WeDo – An early-childhood robotics construction kit that may be controlled via Scratch.
- LEGO Education – Main LEGO website for education products and resources.
- LEGO Mindstorms NXT – Robotics construction kits for middle school/high school students
- Enchanting – Alternative programming language for LEGO NXT
- FIRST LEGO League – Worldwide robotics competitions for youth ages 9-16
Robotics
- GoGo Board – Open source hardware platform for programmable projects using sensors and robotics. Works with MicroWorlds and Scratch.
- Make: LEGO and Arduino Projects: Projects for Extending MINDSTORMS NXT with Open-Source Electronics – by John Baichtal, Matthew Beckler, and Adam Wolf
- Great robotics challenges – Gary Stager’s 13 favorite problem-solving prompts for inventing with robotics.
- Big Trak – Our late friend, Steve Ocko, invented this programmable floor turtle (robot) for Milton Bradley in 1979. There has never been a more powerful easy-to-use robot available for kids since. The good news is that some lunatic bought the rights to the Big Trak and is manufacturing new ones 30+ years later. Kids from 5+ will play and learn with Big Trak for ages.
- New Pathways into Robotics – This paper discusses strategies for educators to broaden participation in robotics activities.
- Probot – A car-shaped floor turtle, complete with a pen for drawing geometric “trails” on paper
- Robots for Kids : Exploring New Technologies for Learning – Edited by Allison Druin and James Hendler. Essays and stories from designers, researchers, educators, and children that discuss their experiences and ideas about robots
- iRobot Create Programmable Robot – The Roomba company has created a programmable floor robot that uses the C programming language
- Botball - A team-oriented robotics competition that focuses on reusable components and autonomous programs (no remote controls,) that encourages creativity and programming.
- Other Robotics Competitions - List compiled by NASA of many other robotics competitions
