Go programming language (also known as Golang) has gained popularity in recent years due to its simplicity, concurrency support, and efficient memory management. While Go has been used extensively for developing web applications and cloud-native services, it is also a great choice for robotics development. In this tutorial, we will introduce Go programming for robotics and explore its benefits.


Why use Go for Robotics?

Go has several features that make it an excellent choice for robotics development. These include:

  • Simplicity: Go has a simple syntax and is easy to learn. This means that developers can quickly get started with building robotics applications without needing to spend a lot of time learning a complex programming language.
  • Concurrency: Go was designed with concurrency in mind, making it easy to write multi-threaded programs. This is essential for robotics development, where multiple sensors and actuators must be controlled simultaneously.
  • Efficient memory management: Go has a garbage collector that automatically frees up memory that is no longer needed. This is essential for robotics applications where memory usage can be a significant concern.
  • Cross-platform support: Go can be compiled to run on a variety of platforms, including Linux, Windows, and macOS. This makes it a great choice for developing robotics applications that can run on a variety of hardware platforms.


Getting Started with Go for Robotics

To get started with Go for robotics development, you will need to install Go on your computer. You can download the latest version of Go from the official website: https://golang.org/dl/. Once you have installed Go, you can start writing Go programs.

Here is a simple "Hello World" program in Go:

package main

import "fmt"

func main() {
    fmt.Println("Hello, world!")
}

This program prints "Hello, world!" to the console. To run this program, save the code in a file with a ".go" extension, such as "hello.go". Then open a terminal window, navigate to the directory where the file is saved, and run the following command:

go run hello.go

This will compile and run the program.


Working with Robotics Hardware in Go

To work with robotics hardware in Go, you will need to use a hardware library or driver. There are several libraries and drivers available for Go, including:

  • Gobot: Gobot is a robotics and IoT framework that provides a simple, yet powerful way to interact with robotics hardware in Go. It supports a wide range of hardware platforms, including Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and BeagleBone.
  • Golang Robotics: Golang Robotics is a collection of Go packages for working with robotics hardware. It includes drivers for a variety of sensors and actuators, as well as libraries for working with ROS (Robot Operating System).
  • GoPiGo: GoPiGo is a robotics kit that can be controlled using Go. It includes a variety of sensors and actuators, as well as a Go library for controlling the robot.

Here is an example program that uses the Gobot library to control a servo motor:

package main

import (
    "time"

    "gobot.io/x/gobot"
    "gobot.io/x/gobot/drivers/gpio"
    "gobot.io/x/gobot/platforms/raspi"
)

func main() {
    r := raspi.NewAdaptor()
    servo := gpio.NewServoDriver(r, "11")

    work := func() {
        gobot.Every(1*time.Second, func() {
            servo.Move(10)
            time.Sleep(1 * time.Second)
            servo.Move(170)
            time.Sleep(1 * time.Second)
        })
    }

    robot := gobot.NewRobot("servoBot",
        []gobot.Connection{
    r},
    []gobot.Device{
        servo,
    },
    work,
)

robot.Start()
}

This program uses the Gobot library to control a servo motor connected to a Raspberry Pi. The servo motor moves between positions 10 and 170 every second.


Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have introduced Go programming for robotics development. We have discussed the benefits of using Go for robotics, including its simplicity, concurrency support, and efficient memory management. We have also shown how to get started with Go programming and how to work with robotics hardware using libraries and drivers. With its growing popularity and excellent support for concurrency, Go is a great choice for building robotics applications.