Artoo Maker Lab is an independent site for people who build things with Arduino, Raspberry Pi, ESP32 and robot kits. We publish projects, plain-English guides and free browser tools to help you get from a parts drawer to a working build with fewer burnt components along the way.
The story of this domain
A Ruby framework for robots
From February 2013, artoo.io was the home of Artoo, an open-source Ruby micro-framework for robotics, drones and the Internet of Things. It was built by The Hybrid Group, a software company in Los Angeles. In the project’s own words, “Artoo is a micro-framework for robotics using Ruby.” (The Hybrid Group, Artoo README)
The code repository was created in August 2012. RubyGems credits Ron Evans, Adrian Zankich, Ari Lerner, Mario Ricalde and Daniel Fischer as its authors. Ron Evans led the project and was described as the “ringleader of The Hybrid Group.”
What it did and why it mattered
The README sums up the core idea: “Artoo provides a simple, yet powerful Domain-Specific Language (DSL) for robotics and physical computing.” (The Hybrid Group, Artoo README) Ruby developers could describe their devices and how those devices should behave in short, readable code. Artoo used the Celluloid library to handle concurrency and shipped with a built-in API server.
Hardware support came through separate adaptor libraries, one for each platform. The README lists Arduino, Parrot ARDrone, BeagleBone, Crazyflie, Digispark, joysticks, keyboard, Leap Motion, OpenCV, Pebble, Raspberry Pi, Roomba, Spark Core and Sphero, plus GPIO and i2c devices. The artoo.io site carried a getting-started guide and a documentation page for each supported platform.
The first release, 0.1.0, arrived on 23 February 2013, and version 1.0.0 followed on 19 August 2013. That year Ron Evans and Adrian Zankich gave the talk “Ruby On Robots Using Artoo” at RubyKaigi 2013 in Tokyo on 30 May and at GoGaRuCo 2013 in San Francisco on 20 September. They ran live demos with an Arduino, Sphero robots and a drone. The appeal was clear from those demos: a language many people knew from web work could drive real hardware with very little setup.
Where Artoo lives now
The last published release, 1.8.2, came out on 15 February 2016. By then the gem had gone through 36 versions and about 152,000 downloads. The project has been inactive since 2016, apart from small maintenance commits.
The code still lives at github.com/hybridgroup/artoo, and that repository is the right place for anyone looking for the framework itself. The package remains available on RubyGems. The Hybrid Group also built two sister projects named in the README: Cylon.js for JavaScript and Gobot for Go. Gobot is still actively maintained, and more about the company is at hybridgroup.com.
How this site relates to it
Artoo Maker Lab is an independent maker electronics publication run by a new team. We are not affiliated with The Hybrid Group, the Artoo project or the people who built it, and none of them are involved with or endorse this site. The original documentation is not reproduced here.
What connects the two is the subject. Artoo was about programming Arduino, Raspberry Pi and robots. Those boards, along with ESP32, are what this site covers today for people building things at their own benches. We are glad the domain has a history rooted in the same kind of hands-on hardware work.
What You’ll Find Here
The site is organised around the questions makers ask most often. Those include what to build, how a component works, which board fits the job, and what value a resistor should be.
Maker Projects
Our step-by-step builds range from a first blinking LED to sensor stations, small robots and connected home gadgets. Each project lists the parts, explains the wiring and walks through the code. We also explain why each step works, so you can adapt the build instead of copying it line for line.
Electronics Basics
These guides cover the fundamentals that every project depends on. Topics include voltage, current and resistance, pull-up and pull-down resistors, logic levels, breadboarding, soldering and reading a datasheet. They are written for people who learn by doing and want the theory only when it helps.
Board Guides
Our board guides cover the hardware itself, including pin layouts, power requirements, voltage limits, programming options and the quirks that trip people up. They span the Arduino family, Raspberry Pi single-board computers and microcontrollers, and Espressif’s ESP32 range. Each guide aims to help you choose the right board for a project before you buy one.
Sensor and Module Guides
Temperature sensors, distance sensors, displays, motor drivers, relays and radio modules each get their own guide. These guides cover how to wire the part, which libraries to use, common failure points and what to check when readings look wrong.
Free Browser Tools
We built a set of calculators and references that run in your browser and handle the small calculations that interrupt a build:
| Tool | What it does |
|---|---|
| GPIO pinout explorer | Shows the pins on popular boards and lists what each one can do |
| Ohm’s law calculator | Solves for voltage, current, resistance or power from known values |
| Resistor colour code calculator | Converts colour bands to a resistance value, and back again |
| LED resistor calculator | Works out the series resistor an LED needs for your supply voltage |
| Number base converter | Converts between binary, decimal and hexadecimal |
Board Release News
When a new board, chip or major revision is announced, we cover the key details. That includes what changed, what it means for existing projects and whether it is worth waiting for. We stick to announced specifications and say clearly when something has not been confirmed.
Build of the Week
Each week we feature a project from the wider maker community that stood out to us. It might be clever, useful, beautifully made or simply fun. Every feature credits the original maker by name or handle and describes their work accurately. We do not present someone else’s build as our own.
Who This Site Is For
We write for hobbyists, students, teachers, tinkerers and engineers working on side projects. Beginners should be able to follow any project from the parts list onward. Experienced builders should find the reference material quick to scan and precise enough to trust.
How We Write
A few principles shape everything we publish:
- Explain the why. A wiring diagram is more useful when you understand the purpose of each connection.
- Be specific. We give real part numbers, real voltages and real values instead of vague advice.
- Flag the risks. Mains voltage, lithium batteries and motors can cause injury or damage, so we say so plainly where it matters.
- Be honest about sources. When a guide is based on our own build, we say so. When it relies on a datasheet or manufacturer documentation, we say that instead.
- Fix mistakes openly. Electronics is unforgiving of errors. If we get something wrong, we correct it.
Independence
Artoo Maker Lab is a new, independent site. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Arduino, Raspberry Pi Ltd or Espressif Systems. Product names and trademarks belong to their respective owners, and we use them only to identify the hardware we write about.
About the Name
The artoo.io address was once home to Artoo, a Ruby robotics framework from The Hybrid Group. Artoo Maker Lab is a separate project with no connection to that framework or its developers. If you came here looking for it, this is not the same thing, though we expect many of its former users will feel at home here.
Who writes here
Artoo Maker Lab’s guides, news and builds are written by a small team, and each article is fact-checked by our standards editor before it goes live.
Grace Whitlock
Grace writes Artoo Maker Lab’s Arduino and electronics basics guides, plus sensors, modules and workshop tools like soldering irons. She explains circuits the way she would want them explained on day one, with the wiring, the numbers and the common mistakes. Read Grace’s articles
Samir Haddad
Samir covers Raspberry Pi, ESP32 and IoT projects, coding for microcontrollers and small robots. He likes projects that solve a real problem at home and writes them up so you can follow along with the same parts. Read Samir’s articles
Wren Calloway
Wren covers board news and our Build of the Week, rounding up new dev boards, price changes and the most interesting community projects. She is drawn to clever builds made from cheap, easy-to-find parts. Read Wren’s articles
Hugo Lindgren, Standards Editor
Hugo is Artoo Maker Lab’s standards editor. Every article goes through his fact-check pass before it is published: pinouts, voltages, part numbers, prices and release dates are checked against datasheets, manufacturer pages and the sources we cite, and anything that cannot be confirmed is fixed or removed.
Imogen Tasker
Imogen Tasker covers sensors, breakout modules and workshop tools for Artoo Maker Lab, from temperature and distance sensors to soldering irons and multimeters. She reads manufacturer datasheets, pinout diagrams and library documentation closely, checking voltage levels, interface types and safety guidance so readers can wire parts correctly and choose tools that suit their projects.
Rohan Easterbrook
Rohan Easterbrook writes about coding and robots for Artoo Maker Lab, covering Arduino sketches, MicroPython, motor control and beginner robot kits. He checks code examples against official language references, board documentation and release notes, and he cares about explaining why each line works so readers can adapt projects instead of copying them blindly.
Get Involved
If you have spotted an error, built something worth featuring or have a topic you would like us to cover, we want to hear from you. Reader corrections improve every guide, and community builds are what keep Build of the Week going.