Notes on Style I admit I was a programmer before I started building robots. So my perspective may be so- what skewed in the direction of a programmer. However, I also didn’t want this book to be from a purely software engineering perspective. I wanted to keep the text balanced between robotics and programming and not get too cute with either discipline, though from time to time I’m afraid I may have indulged myself. Who Should Read This Book If you want off-the-shelf robot components, free software, and development tools, this is the book for you. The following sections outline the experience you should have to get the most out of the book. Your Programming/Java Experience I could say that you should have a good understanding of object-oriented techniques and Java before getting started with this book, but if you’re like most roboticists, you’ll likely learn as you go, and by following the various examples I’ve included within these pages.