Stacking modular PCBs

The three boards stacked one upon another

This is another relatively quick post to show how to modular robotic boards are to come together to form a robot with modular behaviour. I have received packages in the post containing headers and some other various parts, but the main order has a back-ordered component, so it will take longer. 

As you can see from the first picture, the top two boards (the Edgebot and the Photovore) have a pair of Arduino 6-pin stackable headers, which are incredibly useful if you want multiple PCBs to have the ability to stack on top of each other, but unfortunately they are only sold in lengths of 6, 8 or 10 pins, so I had to design the boards around one of those sizes. These pairs of headers have two uses on these boards, the preliminary function is the transfer of electrical logic signals between various boards, the other purpose of the headers is to hold and stabilise the boards mounted on top and using a pair of headers is a lot more stable than a single row.

You can also see the right angle pins facing outwards from the upper boards, these are to attach various inputs/outputs to, such as touch switches, light sensors, logic outputs etc.

Here are some more images of the boards with a few components;

The three boards unstacked