Let's address the obvious problem.
A robot that needs a laptop sitting next to it isn't really a robot. It's a very expensive remote control. Even the thinnest laptop on the market — say, an Asus Zenbook A14 — weighs over 2.5 lbs and measures 13×9 inches. That's not riding inside a robot. That's the robot riding inside a carry-on bag.
Phase 1 was a scenic tour through the world of robotics — high mileage, low spending, maximum borrowing from things we already owned. Laptop, old phone, RC car from the garage, a few skipped Starbucks runs. Ten parts, under $40, and a surprisingly complete picture of how robots actually think.
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.
Of all the senses a robot can have, vision gets the most attention. Always has. Probably always will.
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.