Controlling and reacting to the environment
To control or react to the environment we need to interface the microcontroller to peripheral devices
Things we want to measure or control
- light, temperature, sound, pressure, velocity, position
Sensors and actuators
- switches, photoresistors, photodiodes, phototransistors, compass, sonar
- motors, relays, LEDs, sonar
Microcontroller
- executes software
- may contain specialized interfaces to sensors and actuators