Robotics

For many years I've been fascinated with robots in science fiction movies, even those appearing in some of the old 1950's films like Robby from Forbidden Planet. I was also captivated by NASA's successful Pathfinder mission and the images of Mars transmitted from the Sojourner microrover.

My background is in I.T. and I have an aptitude for mechanics and various DIY 'stuff' . What I've learn't about robotics so far has been from resources available on the web, from books and of course, from hands-on experience.

I've built and tested my first, basic robot and the process was quite smooth.

I'll be documenting my robot building experiences here and will include photos, short videos and a few tips.

Good luck in your own robot building endeavours,

KD

News

New Robot book arrives - 2005/01/28

The postman delivered a new book that I'd recently ordered. "Intermediate Robot Building" is David Cook's second book. It teaches the reader how to build a robot called "Roundabout" and the reasoning behind why various components are used.

A logic chip acts as Roundabout's brain, whereas a comparator chip was used in "Sandwich", the robot from David's first book. However in chapter 15 (of 18) Roundabout gets a brain replacement in the form of an MCU! Not surprisingly David selected a Motorola MCU but the reader doesn't have to make the same choice.

As with my first robot, I'm considering to deviate again from choices made in the book. This time if I proceed to the stage where Roundabout's logic chip is replaced with an MCU, I may try using an Atmel AVR MCU instead.

Articles

My first line following robot! - 2002/12/18

Describes the steps involved in building my first ever robot. A line following robot based on David Cook's "Sandwich" robot.