Learning path

Makers and robots

Build a robot, put AI on tiny chips and learn how drones and self-driving cars work.

32 lessons · 208 min left

Start path → Your first Python program

Python from zeroLesson 99: Your first Python programWrite one line, press Run, and watch the computer do exactly what you said. You will also learn to leave notes for humans with comments.Beginner6 min read🧪 Lab📝 TestUp next
Python from zeroLesson 100: Variables, numbers and textWhole numbers, decimal numbers and text are different kinds of values. Learn to use each one, convert between them, and print them neatly with f-strings.Beginner7 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Python from zeroLesson 101: Making decisions with ifPrograms become useful when they can choose. Learn to compare values and use if, elif and else to do different things in different cases.Beginner7 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Python from zeroLesson 102: Loops: doing things again and againComputers never get bored. Use for, range and while to repeat steps, and to add up or check many values in one go.Beginner7 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Build a mini robotLesson 264: Meet your virtual robotEvery robot runs the same loop: sense, decide, act. Meet a small two-wheel robot that lives in your browser, and drive it to a goal.Beginner7 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Build a mini robotLesson 265: Sensors: how a robot notices the worldLine sensors see dark and light, ultrasonic sensors measure distance with sound, and every sensor is a bit noisy. Learn what each one really tells you.Beginner7 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Build a mini robotLesson 266: Line follower in codeTwo small light sensors and a few if-statements are enough to follow a curving black line. Write the classic line-follower and learn what to do when the robot loses the line.Beginner6 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Build a mini robotLesson 267: Avoiding obstaclesUse the distance sensor to wander around a room full of obstacles without touching any. Learn simple avoidance rules, why robots get stuck, and how to test fairly.Beginner5 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Build a mini robotLesson 268: Choosing parts on a budgetA simple two-wheel robot needs a small board, a motor driver, two geared motors, sensors and batteries. Learn what each part does and how to choose without overspending.Beginner7 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Build a mini robotLesson 269: Wiring motors and sensors safelyConnect the motor driver, motors and ultrasonic sensor to an Arduino, upload a first test sketch, and test with the wheels off the ground. Safety first, every step.Beginner9 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Build a mini robotLesson 270: Smooth steering with PIDA PID controller steers by how far off the line you are, how long you have been off, and how fast the error is changing. Tune P, I and D on the virtual robot until it tracks the line smoothly.Middle6 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Build a mini robotLesson 271: Giving your robot eyes: a tiny vision modelA camera and a tiny image classifier can tell your robot which way the path turns. Train one on small synthetic images and learn why real-world data matters.Middle6 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Build a mini robotLesson 272: Voice commands with a language modelSay "go forward a little" and let a language model turn it into a command. Then make sure the robot only ever accepts a small list of safe commands, whatever the model says.Middle6 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Build a mini robotLesson 273: Showcase: plan, build and share your robotPick a small robot project, plan it with a safety and test plan, build it step by step, and share it so others can learn from it.Beginner6 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
TinyML: AI on tiny chipsLesson 274: What TinyML isTinyML means running machine learning models on microcontrollers: tiny, cheap chips that run on very little power. Learn what they can do, and what they cannot.Middle6 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
TinyML: AI on tiny chipsLesson 275: Microcontrollers vs computersA microcontroller has kilobytes of RAM, no operating system and a power budget in milliwatts. Learn how flash, RAM and power decide what model can fit.Middle7 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
TinyML: AI on tiny chipsLesson 276: Collecting sensor dataA TinyML model is only as good as its data. Learn how accelerometers and microphones produce data, how to label it, and how to cut it into windows.Middle6 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
TinyML: AI on tiny chipsLesson 277: Training a tiny modelTurn each window into a few useful numbers, such as the mean and the energy, and train a small classifier. Then measure it honestly on held-out data.Middle6 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
TinyML: AI on tiny chipsLesson 278: Shrinking it to fitint8 quantisation stores each weight in one byte instead of four. Do it yourself in numpy, and measure how much size you save and how much accuracy you lose.Middle5 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
TinyML: AI on tiny chipsLesson 279: Wake words and gesturesAn always-on detector checks again and again, all day. Learn the trade-off between false alarms and misses, and how to choose a threshold.Middle5 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
TinyML: AI on tiny chipsLesson 280: Deploying and testing on a boardFollow the path from a trained model to a program running on a microcontroller. Then test it on real data, and understand the power and privacy benefits.Middle8 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Drones and self-driving basicsLesson 281: How a drone stays in the airFour spinning rotors push air down, and the drone goes up. Learn how thrust, weight and tiny speed changes keep it level, turn it and move it.Middle7 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Drones and self-driving basicsLesson 282: Sensors: GPS, IMU, cameras and lidarEvery sensor is good at some things and bad at others. Learn what each one measures, where it fails, and why machines combine several of them.Middle8 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Drones and self-driving basicsLesson 283: Knowing where you areCounting your own steps drifts. GPS jumps around. Combine them and you get something better than either. This is localisation.Middle6 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Drones and self-driving basicsLesson 284: Planning a pathTurn the world into a grid of free and blocked squares, then search for the shortest route. Learn breadth-first search and A*, the classic path planners.Middle7 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Drones and self-driving basicsLesson 285: Seeing obstaclesSensors fill a grid map with free, blocked and unknown squares. Then we grow every obstacle by a safety margin, so the robot's body never scrapes past.Middle6 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Drones and self-driving basicsLesson 286: Safety, rules and flying legally in IndiaDrones can hurt people and disturb aircraft, so India regulates them. Learn the main ideas of the rules, the airspace zones, and how to plan a safe flight.Middle6 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Drones and self-driving basicsLesson 287: Self-driving cars: what is real todayDriver assistance is common, and driverless taxis run in a few places under limits. Learn the levels of automation, why rare situations are so hard, and why Indian roads are a special challenge.Middle8 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Reinforcement learning playgroundLesson 288: Learning by trial and errorNobody tells the agent the right answer. It tries something, gets a score, and slowly changes what it does. That is reinforcement learning.Middle6 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Reinforcement learning playgroundLesson 289: States, actions and rewardsEvery RL problem is described with the same few words. Learn them by building a tiny corridor game and scoring it with a discounted return.Middle7 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Reinforcement learning playgroundLesson 290: Multi-armed banditsThe simplest RL game: many choices, each with a hidden chance of reward. Learn epsilon-greedy, the classic way to balance trying and using.Middle6 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test
Reinforcement learning playgroundLesson 291: Q-learning step by stepA treasure hunt with rocks and traps. Build the Q-learning update line by line, see why it passes reward backwards, and read the map your agent learns.Middle6 min read🧪 Lab📝 Test