Control Structures

• Computer programming


  • One of the functions is for communication between humans and computers or machines
  • Key skill to develop for working in robotics
• Conditional statement


  Allows performing different computations or actions depending on whether a programmer-specified boolean condition evaluates to true or false
• Conditional control structures


  • Make conditions or expressions that evaluate to either true or false
  • Mostly used to determine program flow through if statements and while loops
• Control Structures Common Syntax

  • digitalWrite()
  • delay()
• IF CONDITIONAL STATEMENT


  Executes any statement inside the brackets { } if the conditional statement is true. If false, the program skips over the statement
• If - Else CONDITIONAL STATEMENT


  An if statement can have an else clause which handles what should be done if the if statement is not true
• while LOOP STATEMENT


  Continues to repeat a block of code as long as the condition is true
• for LOOP STATEMENT


  Most useful when you want something to happen a couple of times
• Robots replaced some people working on dangerous tasks
• Robots receive commands from programmers to do a certain task using computers and software
• Robots cannot understand the language humans use
• Robots replaced some people working on dangerous tasks, making our lives more convenient
• Robots


  Receive commands from programmers to do a certain task using computers and software
• Communication between robots and humans is important
• Programming languages are developed because robots cannot understand the language we use
• Source codes (commands)


  Converted into machine codes that can only be understood by computers
• Serial Monitor


  A tool used for communication between the Arduino board and a computer or other devices
• Serial Monitor


  Allows sending messages from a computer to an Arduino board (over USB) and receiving messages from the Arduino
• Opening up the Serial Monitor

  After uploading the sketch onto your Arduino, click on the right-most button on the toolbar in the Arduino IDE
• Serial Monitor Window


  • Acts as a separate terminal that communicates by receiving and sending Serial Data
  • Part of the Arduino IDE software
• Serial Data is sent over a single wire (but usually travels over USB) and consists of a series of 1’s and 0’s sent over the wire
• Serial Monitor Window is called the Serial Monitor and it is part of the Arduino IDE software