Robotics programming was something I've been wanting to do since I was a teenager. Not sure it took me this long to get around it.

Recently I got the bug for coding a robot. After a little research I found the quickest & cheapest one I could find. Bought it off of amazon here:

This is the ELEGOO UNO R3 Project Smart Robot Car Kit V 3.0 , and requires assembly when it arrives. I'd say it took less than an hour to assemble. The IDE for programming it is called Arduino, and can be downloaded from Elegoo's site here (click on Arduino IDE for Windows).

Programming

Programming for the robot is done in C++, something I haven't done in several years. The Arduino IDE is very basic, and limited. Debugging is pretty much non-existent. Fortunately on their website you can download several sample applications.

At the time of writing this, I've only done some simple programming with it, but am hoping to do more with it when I have the time. But for now, just wanted to encourage you coders out there: Go out and try something cool. It's fun to write code that actually makes something physically move around your kitchen floor...