Beginner to Intermediate - 10 Weeks

Robotics & IoT

Design, build, and program intelligent hardware systems. From microcontrollers and sensors to real-time control and cloud-connected IoT dashboards.

10 Weeks Duration
250+ Topics
5 Projects
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Program Overview

Robotics & IoT is a 10-week hands-on program that takes you from electronics basics to building complete intelligent systems.

Students progress through four phases - electronics fundamentals and microcontroller programming, sensor integration and actuators, robotics systems and real-time control, and finally IoT connectivity, cloud dashboards, and a capstone project.

Phase Weeks Focus Area Outcome
Phase 1 Weeks 1-3 Electronics, Arduino & Raspberry Pi Program microcontrollers and control GPIO hardware
Phase 2 Weeks 4-5 Sensor Integration & Actuators Read sensor data and drive motors with precision
Phase 3 Weeks 6-7 Robotics Systems & Real-Time Control Build autonomous robots with PID and interrupt control
Phase 4 Weeks 8-10 IoT Connectivity, Cloud & Capstone Stream live data to cloud dashboards and capstone build

Weekly Curriculum

Click any week to expand topics and lab assignment.

W1

Phase 1 - Foundations

Introduction to Robotics, IoT & Electronics Basics

Topics Covered

What is robotics? What is IoT? Types of robots
IoT architecture overview Basic electronics (V, I, R) Ohm's law
Breadboards & wiring Resistors & capacitors LEDs & transistors
Reading circuit diagrams

Lab / Deliverable

Wire a simple LED blink circuit on a breadboard using only discrete components - no microcontroller.

W2

Phase 1 - Foundations

Microcontroller Programming - Arduino Fundamentals

Topics Covered

Arduino platform overview Arduino IDE setup Sketch structure (setup/loop)
Digital I/O Analog I/O PWM signals
Serial communication pinMode & digitalWrite analogRead & analogWrite
Debugging with Serial Monitor

Lab / Deliverable

Program an Arduino to control LED brightness using a potentiometer via PWM and analogRead.

W3

Phase 1 - Foundations

Raspberry Pi & Linux for Embedded Systems

Topics Covered

Raspberry Pi hardware overview Linux command line basics GPIO pin layout
Python on Raspberry Pi RPi.GPIO library I2C & SPI protocols
UART communication SSH & remote access Headless Pi setup

Lab / Deliverable

Set up a Raspberry Pi headlessly, access via SSH, and control an LED via GPIO using Python.

W4

Phase 2 - Sensor Integration

Sensor Integration & Data Acquisition

Topics Covered

Types of sensors Temperature & humidity (DHT11/22) Ultrasonic distance (HC-SR04)
IR sensors PIR motion sensors Light dependent resistors
Accelerometers (MPU-6050) Sensor calibration Analog vs digital sensors
Noise filtering

Lab / Deliverable

Project 1: Build an environmental monitoring station that reads temperature, humidity, and light levels and logs data to a CSV file.

W5

Phase 2 - Sensor Integration

Actuators, Motors & Movement

Topics Covered

DC motors & H-bridge (L298N) PWM motor speed control Servo motors
Stepper motors Motor driver circuits Relay modules
Solenoids Gear ratios & torque Direction & speed control
Motor encoder basics

Lab / Deliverable

Project 2: Build a motorised chassis with independent wheel control - forward, reverse, and turning.

W6

Phase 3 - Robotics Systems

Robotics Fundamentals & Kinematics

Topics Covered

Robot anatomy & degrees of freedom Coordinate systems Forward kinematics
Inverse kinematics (intro) Robot arm anatomy PID control theory
Line-following algorithms Obstacle avoidance logic Dead reckoning
Odometry

Lab / Deliverable

Project 3: Build a line-following robot using IR sensors and a PID-tuned motor control loop.

W7

Phase 3 - Robotics Systems

Real-Time Control Systems & Interrupts

Topics Covered

RTOS concepts FreeRTOS basics Interrupt service routines
Timer interrupts Hardware vs software interrupts Debouncing
Multitasking on microcontrollers Watchdog timers Task scheduling
Latency & timing constraints

Lab / Deliverable

Implement interrupt-driven encoder feedback for a motor controller with precise speed regulation.

W8

Phase 4 - IoT & Connectivity

IoT Protocols & Wireless Connectivity

Topics Covered

Wi-Fi with ESP8266/ESP32 Bluetooth & BLE MQTT protocol
HTTP REST for IoT CoAP protocol overview LoRa & LoRaWAN
Zigbee overview NFC & RFID basics Network security in IoT
TLS/SSL on embedded devices

Lab / Deliverable

Project 4: Connect a sensor node to an MQTT broker and publish live readings to a cloud dashboard.

W9

Phase 4 - IoT & Connectivity

Cloud Platforms, Dashboards & Data Pipelines

Topics Covered

AWS IoT Core overview Azure IoT Hub overview Google Cloud IoT
Node-RED visual programming InfluxDB for time-series data Grafana dashboards
IFTTT automation Webhooks & triggers OTA firmware updates
Edge vs cloud processing

Lab / Deliverable

Project 5: Stream sensor data to a cloud IoT platform and build a live Grafana dashboard with alerting.

W10

Phase 4 - IoT & Connectivity

Capstone - Intelligent Robotics / IoT System

Topics Covered

Capstone project planning System architecture design Hardware-software integration
Power management 3D printing & enclosures (intro) Safety & fail-safes
Testing & validation Technical documentation Demo preparation
Responsible robotics & ethics

Capstone Project

Design and build a complete intelligent system - choose from: Autonomous obstacle-avoidance robot, Smart home automation hub, Remote-controlled IoT surveillance unit, or Robotic arm with sensor feedback.

Learning Outcomes

Skills you'll have by the end of the program.

Electronics Fundamentals

Read circuit diagrams, work safely with components, and prototype on breadboards

Arduino Programming

Write C/C++ sketches for Arduino to read sensors and control actuators

Raspberry Pi & Linux

Deploy Python scripts on Linux-based embedded systems via SSH and GPIO

Sensor Integration

Interface with temperature, distance, motion, and accelerometer sensors

Motor & Actuator Control

Drive DC motors, servos, and steppers with precise speed and direction control

Robotics & PID Control

Implement line-following and obstacle-avoidance with tuned PID loops

Real-Time Systems

Use interrupts, timers, and task scheduling for time-critical embedded applications

IoT Protocols

Publish and subscribe to MQTT topics and connect devices over Wi-Fi and BLE

Cloud & Dashboards

Stream IoT data to AWS/Azure IoT and visualise it live in Grafana

Capstone Project

Design, build, document, and demo a complete robotics or IoT system

Recommended Hardware Kit

Students need access to the following hardware components. A pre-bundled starter kit covering all items is available through the course store.

Microcontrollers

  • Arduino Uno R3
  • Raspberry Pi 4 (2GB+)
  • ESP32 dev board
  • USB cables & power adapters

Sensors & Modules

  • DHT11/22 (temp/humidity)
  • HC-SR04 (ultrasonic)
  • MPU-6050 (accelerometer)
  • PIR motion sensor
  • L298N motor driver

Components & Tools

  • Breadboard & jumper wires
  • Resistor & LED kit
  • DC motors & servo motors
  • Multimeter
  • Soldering iron (optional)

Assessment & Grading

35%

Weekly Hardware Labs (Weeks 1-9)

Documented lab builds with circuit photos and code submitted weekly

15%

Environmental Monitor Project (Week 4)

Sensor station with multi-channel data logging

15%

Motorised Chassis Build (Week 5)

Working robot chassis with directional motor control

15%

Line-Following Robot (Week 6)

Autonomous robot with PID-tuned line tracking

10%

IoT Cloud Dashboard (Week 9)

Live sensor stream to cloud platform with Grafana display

10%

Capstone Project (Week 10)

Complete intelligent system with live demo and technical write-up

Tools & Technologies

Languages

C/C++ (Arduino), Python 3 (Raspberry Pi / ESP32 MicroPython)

IDEs & Editors

Arduino IDE 2.x, VS Code with PlatformIO, Thonny (MicroPython)

Hardware Platforms

Arduino Uno, Raspberry Pi 4, ESP8266, ESP32

IoT Protocols

MQTT (Mosquitto broker), HTTP REST, BLE, Wi-Fi

Cloud Platforms

AWS IoT Core, Azure IoT Hub, Adafruit IO (beginner-friendly)

Data & Dashboards

Node-RED, InfluxDB, Grafana, ThingSpeak

Libraries & Frameworks

RPi.GPIO, DHT library, PID library, FreeRTOS, requests

Version Control

Git & GitHub for code and hardware documentation

Prerequisites & Requirements

No prior robotics or electronics experience is required.

Basic programming experience (any language) - Python familiarity is a plus

Access to the hardware kit listed above

A laptop with internet access for IDE installation and cloud platform access

8-10 hours per week for instruction, labs, and hardware build sessions

Ready to Build Intelligent Systems?

Graduate with hardware projects you can hold, demonstrate, and deploy.

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