Part 10: Phase 1 Recap — What We Built, What We Learned, and Why We’re Still Here

Nine parts. Less than $40 total. A few skipped Starbucks runs, a few sacrificed Taco Bell Crunchy Tacos — all in the name of science, and the deeply held belief that somewhere down this road, we build something better than Bumblebee. Or at least Bumblebee’s budget cousin.

Part 9: The Robot Learns to Stay in Its Lane — Line Following with a Webcam

Of all the senses a robot can have, vision gets the most attention. Always has. Probably always will.

Part 8B: The Robot Learns Names — Building a Face Recognition Attendance System

Quick recap before we dive in.

In Part 8A, we built Face Detection: the robot learned to find faces in a live video stream and draw a green box around them. It could answer “Is there a face here, and where is it?” — nothing more.

Part 8A: The Robot Learns to See Faces

Let’s do our usual “big picture” check-in before diving in.

Part 7: “Hey Robot, Move!” — Teaching Our Robot to Listen

By this point, the picture is getting clearer. We’re not just “vaguely understanding” how robots work anymore — we actually understand it:

Part 6: "Something's in the Way!" — Obstacle Avoidance Without Buying Anything

Before we get into the robot vision stuff, let's talk about one of the most legendary tools in all of programming.