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Lesson 1 — Your First Move

What you will learn: How to connect to the robot, drive it forward, and stop it.

The code

Copy this into a new file called lesson1.py and run it:

import bugbot; bugbot.go()   # always the first line

forward(50)    # drive forward at 50% speed
wait(2)        # wait 2 seconds
stop()         # stop all motors

Run it:

python lesson1.py

The robot should drive forward for two seconds and then stop.

What's happening

import bugbot; bugbot.go()

This loads the BugBot library and connects to the robot. It also makes all the robot functions — forward, stop, distance, etc. — available in your script. This line must always be first.

forward(50)

This starts the robot driving forward. The number is the speed — 0 is stopped, 100 is full power, 50 is half. The robot keeps driving until you tell it to stop.

wait(2)

This pauses your program for 2 seconds. While your program is paused, the robot keeps doing whatever it was doing — in this case, driving forward.

stop()

This stops all four motors immediately.

Challenges

  1. Change the speed. Try forward(20) and forward(80). How does it feel different?

  2. Go backward. Replace forward(50) with backward(50). What happens?

  3. Drive in a square. Drive forward, stop, turn, stop, and repeat four times. Hint: turn(90) turns the robot 90° clockwise.

  4. Long drive. Make the robot drive forward for 10 seconds by changing the number inside wait().

  5. Add a beep. Use beep(440, 200) to make the robot beep when it stops.

Bonus: Robot class style

If you already know Python well, you can also use the Robot class directly. This gives you more control but requires a bit more code:

from bugbot import Robot

with Robot(0) as bot:
    bot.forward(50)
    import time; time.sleep(2)
    bot.stop()
# disconnects automatically here

Both styles talk to the same robot — use whichever feels clearer to you.