Build Your Own Autonomous NERF Blaster: Programming Mayhem with Processing and Arduino

by Bryce Bigger

Overview

Design and build your own robotic, Arduino-powered sentry blaster!

Break out the big daddy blaster--and teach it to act on its own! Build Your Own Autonomous NERF Blaster walks you through cool DIY projects, such as working with motion sensors, remote monitors, and facial detection software, all while building up to the ultimate goal: a robotic NERF weapon that finds and fires on its targets! Have some serious fun along the way as you learn about creative coding with Processing and Arduino.

Step-by-step instructions show you how to:

• Construct and mount a servo, NERF blaster, and webcam in harmonious alignment
• Program Processing to receive video, search it for a face, and then pass instructions to your Arduino board via USB cable
• Configure Arduino to process the message and instruct the servo to move to a new position
• Specify your target radius in Processing and, when met, send the message to Arduino that it's time to "open fire!"

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780071802765
Publisher:	McGraw Hill LLC
Publication date:	07/06/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
File size:	28 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Bryce Bigger is an interactive designer and developer. He is the owner of The Bigger Design, a hotbed of interactive magic making for clients including the U.S. Navy, Oracle, Ping Golf, Lockheed Martin, and the National Institutes of Health. He created The Sentinel Project, an open-source autonomous foam dart gun system, which was shown at the AdobeMAX tradeshow to spotlight its innovative use of Adobe AIR technology. Since then, he's produced other foam-dart weaponry for clients including email marketing leaders MailChimp.

Table of Contents

Ch 1. Tinkering Ch 2. Building the NERF Niche Ch 3. Processing Crash Course Ch 4. Arduino Crash Course Ch 5. Motion Detection Ch 6. Tinkering Pays Off Ch 7. Foam Dart Blaster Hackery Ch 8. Blaster Brains and Eyes Ch 9. Autonomous Avenger Armed Ch 10. Leveling Up Appendix A: Parts List Appendix B: The Sentinel Project Build Appendix C: Applied Warfare Tactics