Manual Robot Arm – Pygame Demo

This repository currently contains a simple Pygame window that renders a red dot you can move with the arrow keys. Follow the steps below to set it up on a fresh machine.

Prerequisites

• macOS, Linux, or Windows
• Python 3.9 or newer (verify with python3 --version)
• pip package manager (bundled with recent Python installs)

Setup

# 1. Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/AppliedEngineeringClub/manual-robot-arm.git

# 2. Move into the cloned folder
cd manual-robot-arm

# 3. (Optional) create and activate a virtual environment
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate            # macOS/Linux
# .venv\Scripts\activate             # Windows PowerShell

# 4. Install dependencies
pip install pygame

Run the demo

python3 pygame-window.py
# or, if executable:
./pygame-window.py

A 640×400 black window should appear. Use the arrow keys to move the red dot. Close the window or press Ctrl+C in the terminal to exit.

Troubleshooting

• ModuleNotFoundError: No module named 'pygame'
  Ensure step 4 succeeded. Re-run pip install pygame inside the same environment.

• Permission denied when running ./pygame-window.py
  Add execute permission: chmod +x pygame-window.py

• Virtual environment not activating (macOS/Linux)
  Run source .venv/bin/activate from the project directory and confirm your shell prompt shows (.venv).