This post goes over some of the core concepts that allow devices all over the world to communicate. Having conversations, layered models, encapsulation, protocols, push vs pull, clients and servers, and Arduino examples showing how to send and receive data between devices.
Check out this giant 3D printed spider robot we are building for TCS (here it has 5 of its 6 legs attached):
Touch Control System (TCS) will act as its brains, giving a 3D touchscreen interface for monitoring sensors with controls for executing routines. We are also using TCS for voice recognition and text-to-speech so we can talk to the robot.