Two Words, One Answer.
How To Build A Robot
 Robot Building for Beginners $29.95 I am providing this feedback in the hope of guiding potential buyer's expectations about the goals of this book. After going through this book you will have: 1. a simple reflex robot (reflex in the sense that it reacts "naively' to detection of light). This is neither good nor bad, again it depends on your expectations. No coding will be involved and the robot cannot do much else 2. you will learn Ohms law and how it is applied in building this robot's circuit 3. you will learn about basic building blocks and how they work, diodes, resistors, comparators, photoresistors, etc 4. you will accumulate a collection of tools and materials that you can reuse 5. you will learn how to do soldering and machining of some parts In my opinion this is a book for the long haul. If you want to get up and running really fast the author himself suggest going the Lego route or with other kits that you assemble together quickly. If you want to learn the basic principles and collect the necessary tools to build parts and/or whole robots it is a good place to start. Bare in mind it is a START. If you are serious about robot building you will ultimately gravitate in building parts and circuits based on skills and knowledge the author describes. The book takes you through a lot of basic skills and knowledge and it has a lot of illustrations, actually multiple per step, which I found invaluable. So no fancy, intelligent robot here, just laying some serious foundations. Make sure that you visit the author's website and you look for the "sandwich" the robot being built. It will give you a lot of helpful information such as a shopping list for all the tools, components needed. One big concern is the cost involved. When all the tools and materials are purchased, we are talking about several hundred dollars. Yes most of them will be for materials and tools that you will use in other projects, if you are seriously committed in sticking with this as a hobby. If you are not, take the Lego or other kit route. I hope this helps and I personally found quite rewarding being able to build the different parts myself and the robot. I already have David's intermediate book and I look forward to the next level of complexity.  How to Build Your Own Prize-Winning Robot (Science Fair Success) $26.60 Learn how to build your own prize-winning robot with Science Fair success! This book teaches the fundamentals of robotics, from motor to wheel alignment and step by step instructions for the construction of a real robot. The book also includes biographical references and easy reference tools such as a table of contents and index. The illustrations in this book are all black & white photographs that come from multiple sources. The black & white photos do NOT hinder the book in the slightest. In fact the photos help to enhance the step by step instructions and help to give full detail of what the ending results of a finished robot should look like. The author also supplies readers with several comprised lists: WHERE TO FIND ROBOTIC COMPETITIONS; WHERE TO FIND ROBOT KITS & SUPPLIES; HOW TO GET INVOLVED IN ROBOTIC CLUBS & ORGANIZATIONS; and an additional list of SUGGESTED READINGS & INTERNET SITES. Surprisingly, after checking the majority of referenced web-addresses most seemed to still work - not sure how long that will last though. OVERALL - this is a terrific introduction to robotics for kids ages 9 to 12.  Build Your Own Robot! $65.00 I know you can already tell by the other revies that this book isn't really for beginners, but I want to just add a bit to it. This is a wonderful reference and tips book for the advanced robo-builder. Although I would recommend you save your money, because you can find most of the information in cheaper books and some online. For the intermediate robotics builder, this is a must have. This will teach you all kinds of techniques that will be perfect to practice, add more information to your head about the architechture and hardware of a robot, and be a perfect reference book for those things you keep forgetting how to do. You'll also learn new programming techniques and have a wonderful time with this. This is definitely who the author wanted to write for. This is the perfect Amateur robotic builder's guide. For the robotics beginner, you should basically forget about buying this book now. If you want to buy it in advance and think you will become a better bot builder someday, you can still save money by buying it later when the price is down. Alhthough the author has put in some content suitible for you, it's still definitely not worth it. So if you want to turn a TV clicker into a remote control and a cooler into a walking robot, I would advise waiting a while and reading some of the books below first... *****-INDICATES RANK ****ROBOT BUILDING FOR BEGINNERS (DAVID COOK) ****ABSOLUTE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO BUILDING ROBOTS (GARRETH BRANWYN) *****ROBOT BUILDING FOR DUMMIES (NANCY STEVENSON, ROGER ERRICK) **BUILD ROBOT DRIVE TRAINS (DENNIS CLARK, MICHAEL OWNIGS) *****JUNKBOTS, BUGBOTS, AND BOTS ON WHEELS: BUILDING SIMPLE ROBOTS WITH beam TECHNOLOGY (MARK TILDEN) **ROBOT BUILDER'S BONANZA (GORDON MCCOMB) I would mostly recommend the two five-stars (ROBOT BUILDING FOR DUMMIES, JUNKBOTS, BUGBOTS, AND BOTS ON WHEELS: BUILDING SIMPLE ROBOTS WITH beam TECHNOLOGY) before you could start this book, but if you absolutely want to be sure that you're ready for it, you can spend an extra few bucks with "ABSOLUTE BEGINNER'S GUIDE TO BUILDING ROBOTS." You can look at the other books, but I would not completely recommend them, because the robot building either costs a bit ("ROBOT BUILDER'S BONANZA", "ROBOT BUILDING FOR BEGINNERS" about in the $200's if you complete all the projects), or (for "BUILD ROBOT DRIVE TRAINS") doesn't really teach the subject we're looking for, and is more for advanced beginner. |
|
