In order to achieve a robot that is able to move, motors that convert electrical signals to mechanical movement are a must. There are two types of motors : DC's and stepper motors.

Before starting with the build of the Jenga-robot itself, we started with the build of a simple robot so that we could use the two mentioned motors and see how they behaved and could be implemented. This first project can be described as a large tutorial about motors and materials.

DC motors consists of a stator and a rotor. The rotor itself contains copper windings which are mounted in a coil form. When current flows through the motor, the coils inside will generate a magnetic field. This magnetic field comes in contact with permanent magnets in the stator, which will result in the rotation of the rotor. The problem with DC motors is that they are very inaccurate and that they require an H-bridge. This means that the usage of DC motors is limited to simple actions.

The other type of motor is the stepper motor. This motor also contains a rotor and stator. The rotor inside the stepper motor is a combination of permanent magnets around the shaft. The stator is made up by a number of electromagnets. Every time that one of these electromagnets becomes energized, the rotor moves one step further. This process continues until the electric source gets shut down. Most stepper motors have around 200 divisions(=steps) per full rotation. This allows the motor to be very accurate. This is also why stepper motors are used in situations where accuracy is a must. The disadvantage of stepper motors is that they are not able to be connected to a battery and be used just like that. An H-bridge is required to deliver electrical pulses to the coils inside of the stepper.

As we already mentioned, H-bridges are required to control the two types of motors.  An H-bridge is an electrical circuit that permits the change of the polarity of two terminals. The polarity is determined by the state of four switches. An H-bridge, for example, makes it possible to run a DC motor in either direction. For controlling a DC motor, a single H-bridge is required. For a stepper motor, two H-bridges are required.