Robotics is my passion.

I've just finished junior year of college and I'd really like to apply for grad
school in Robotics. I'm from India. Here students don't work and it is their parents who pay their
fees. My parents have already spent so much for my education. They have even taken a loan for my
studies and I really can't ask them for more money. Even for my college projects, they have spent so
much and I cant bother them any longer. I want to learn more about this specialization because I
know that this can kick-start my career in the field of Robotics. I have already audited 2 courses in
this specialization and I'm currently auditing the third one. I really wish I could unlock the quizzes
and the assignments to test myself on the things that I've learned so far. Also I really value the
certificate from coursera and it would really help me out if I could take this course for free.

Being in the mechanical department, I have never really been able to pursue my true passion that is
Robotics. Our academic system does not have any means to specialize in that area and that is why I
turn to coursera. I want to kick-start my career towards Robotics in my college days itself, so that I
can apply for grad school in US (CMU, Michigan, or GeorgiaTech). I strongly believe that taking this
course along with others can increase my chances to get admitted. That being said, a more potent
reason to take this course is so that I can learn! Even though going to the above mentioned grad
schools is my dream and I plan to do everything in my power to get in, I want to think about the
current scenario and just enjoy learning. For so long I stuck myself to the academic curriculum laid
out in front of me and I never bothered to take up something I'm interested in. I want to change
that. And this is my first step.
NXP (formerly Freescale) Kinetis K80 Microcontroller:
Clock frequency: Up to 150Mhz
Bitwidth: 32-bit
Size of flash memory: 256KB
Number of pins: 66
AD Converter: Yes, 16-bit precision
Link: http://www.nxp.com/docs/en/data-sheet/K80P121M150SF5.pdf

Atmel ATmega168PB
Clock frequency: Up to 20Mhz
Bitwidth: 8-bit
Size of flash memory: 16KB
Number of pins: 32
AD Converter: Yes, 8-bit precision
Link: http://ww1.microchip.com/downloads/en/DeviceDoc/Atmel-42176-ATmega48PB-88PB-
168PB_Datasheet.pdf

Arduino
Arduinos do no support traditional operating systems like Windows, OSX, or Linux; however,
some have developed lightweight operating systems based on FreeRTOS, which is open
source.

Raspberry Pi
Raspberry Pi supports an array of OS as it is a more powerful microprocessor compared to an
Arduino (https://raspberrypi.stackexchange.com/questions/534/definitive-list-of-operating-
systems), many of which are open-source.