Making Things Move

Abstract

Probably one of the most interesting aspects of hobby electronics is building robots or making your projects move. There are many ways of achieving general movement depending on the use case. One common way to make a project move is through motors. Motors are referred to as actuators because they act on something rather than sense something, as sensors do. Different kinds of motors provide different levels of freedom of movement and power. The three most common motors are DC motors, servos, and stepper motors (see Figure 9-1).