Introduction 1
About This Book 1
Conventions Used in This Book 1
What You’re Not to Read 2
Foolish Assumptions 2
How This Book Is Organized 3
Part I: Getting Started with Robotics 3
Part II: Programmable Robot Prep 4
Part III: Building a Programmable Robot 4
Part IV: Augmenting Your Programmable Robot 4
Part V: The Part of Tens 5
Icons Used in This Book 5
Where to Go from Here 6
Part I: Getting Started with Robotics 7
Chapter 1: So, You Want to Build a Robot? 9
The Robotics Revolution 10
Where have we been? 10
Are we there yet? 10
Where are we going? 11
Robot Uses 12
Security 12
Surveillance and exploration 13
Human helper 14
Chapter 2: Plotting a Path 15
Starting with a Kit 15
Selecting a Robot Kit 16
Nonprogrammable kits 17
Programmable kits 21
Moving Up to Robot Construction Sets 24
Anatomy of a robot construction set 24
Grow, grow, and outgrow! 25
Building a Robot from Scratch 25
Choosing what to get off the shelf 25
Parts sources 27
Economics and Time Considerations 28
Start small 28
Haste makes waste 29
Don’t get stuck in a rut! 29
Reuse and recycle 29
Get testy with your robot 30
Get on the right path 30
Chapter 3: Building Your First Robot 31
Robot Kit to the Rescue 31
On Your Mark, Get Set 32
Making time 32
Your workspace 33
Tools and grunting noises 33
Precautions 34
It’s in the book 36
Let the Building Begin 36
Jumping ahead 36
Going nuts 37
Cutting up 37
The story of gears and motors 37
Batteries are last 37
Extra parts 38
Testing and Troubleshooting 38
The dead robot 39
Motor problems 39
Side stepping 40
Soccer Jr in Action 40
Soccer 40
Gathering balls 41
Shooting pool 41
Sumo without the bulk 42
Learning Your Robot Chops 42
Motors making my head spin 42
Grinding those gears 43
Cams, but not for the Web 44
Juicing it up with batteries 45
Baby Robot Steps 48
Part II: Programmable Robot Prep 49
Chapter 4: Setting Up Your Robot Workshop 51
Creating an Ideal Work Area 51
Getting Organized 53
Tool Time 54
Personal computer 54
Testing equipment 55
Power strips 59
Machining 60
CAD software 60
Testing your circuit board design 60
Integrated development environment 61
Device programmers 61
How to Solder 62
Soldering 101 62
Undoing solder mistakes 63
Soldering tips 64
How do you keep it so clean? 66
Anti-Static Considerations: Can’t Touch This! 66
Mr Owl, how many volts does it take ? 66
The honorable discharge 67
A Robot Library 68
Chapter 5: The Nuts and Bolts of Robot Building 71
Pieces and Parts 71
What’s It All Made Of? 72
Heavy metal 72
One word — plastic 73
It was good enough for Pinocchio 73
Nuts and Bolts 74
Double standards 74
Don’t fall apart on me 74
Motors for Locomotion 75
The useful DC gear motor 75
The versatile RC servo 79
Making Sense of Sensors 82
Electronics Primer 83
Resistors resist 83
Take charge with capacitors 85
Cable, connectors, and wires 87
Semiconductors 88
Creating circuit boards 90
Power to the Robots 94
Series and parallel demystified 95
Bench DC power supply 95
Tethered power 97
Chapter 6: A Programming Primer 99
Software and Computers 99
Keep it modular 100
Programming: The low road 100
Programming: The high road 101
Programming quick-start 101
Anatomy of a Program 102
Comments 102
Declarations 103
Instructions 104
Sample program 104
Useful Code Snippets 105
Useful Subroutines 107
Starting a program 108
Backing away to the left 108
Sounding an alarm 109
Okay, I Programmed Now What? 110
Part III: Building a Programmable Robot 111
Chapter 7: Preparing to Build a Programmable Robot 113
Robot Components Overview 114
Looking at basic robot parts 114
Looking at ARobot’s components 116
Assembly Process Overview 117
Organizing and Prepping the Parts 118
Gathering your tools 119
Preparing the parts 119
To Paint or Not to Paint? 120
The rugged look 120
The snazzy look 121
Chapter 8: From Whiskers to Wheels 123
Starting with Whiskers 123
Attaching the Drive Motor 125
Dealing with Wheels 126
The encoder sensor 126
The front wheel axle 126
Rear steering alignment 129
Chapter 9: If I Only Had a Brain 133
Adding the Controller 133
Selecting just the right controller 134
Installing the controller board 135
Installing the controller 136
Connecting the battery cable 136
Connecting the body cable 138
Finishing Touches 138
Turning ARobot On 139
Chapter 10: Introducing Your Robot to Your Computer 141
Working with the Basic Stamp Editor 141
Installing the software 142
Opening the editor 142
Loading or creating a program 142
Downloading a program to ARobot 142
Troubleshooting downloading 145
Running the Built-In Programs 146
Testing the robot’s functions 146
Adjusting the steering 149
Wandering around with the Wander program 150
Troubleshooting 150
Tricky whiskers 151
Steering gone astray 151
Getting the drive motor right 152
Controller, this is the tower We have a problem 152
The dead robot 153
Part IV: Augmenting Your Programmable Robot 155
Chapter 11: Expanding Your Robot’s Universe 157
Adding Rear Whiskers 157
All about whiskers 158
Collecting the parts 159
Installing the whiskers 160
Controlling the whiskers 163
Adding an Expansion Board 165
Collecting the parts 167
Preparing the board 167
Installing the expansion board 168
Building a Motorized Head 172
Selecting a motor 173
Mounting the motor 174
Adding a perf board 175
Controlling the motor 175
Troubleshooting 177
Accessorizing 177
Wheel covers 178
Handles 178
Beefing up the payload capacity 179
Running lights 181
Clear dome 182
Rubber bumpers 183
Chapter 12: Making Your Robot See the Light 185
Making Sense of Light Sensors 185
The hardware part 186
And the software part 186
Pulling Together the Light-Sensing Hardware 187
Selecting the sensor 188
Testing the sensor before you commit 188
Planning and building the circuit 189
Interfacing to the controller 192
Writing the Software That Interprets the Hardware 195
Writing the low-level software 195
Hooking up with the high-level software 196
Troubleshooting the software 197
Putting Your Sensor to Work: Real-World Applications 198
Making your robot sleepy 198
Programming a light alarm 200
Positioning the light sensor 202
More Light Sensor Ideas 205
Improving direction sensing 206
Software filtering 206
Overdoing it 207
Chapter 13: Some Like It Hot 209
Sensational Temperature Sensors 209
Thermistors can take the heat 210
Semiconductors: Sensitive, three-legged creatures 211
Building the Temperature-Sensor System 212
Under the hood: Creating a temperature-sensor circuit 213
Collecting the parts 214
Installing the temperature sensor 215
Temperature sensor, meet the controller 215
Turning the switch 217
The Brains of the Beast: The Software 218
The driver at the lower level 218
Taking things to a higher level 219
Hot or cold: Testing the software 220
Making sense of the numbers 221
Troubleshooting temperature-sensor software 221
Turning Up the Heat: Real-World Applications 222
Your new hobby: Temperature logging 223
Danger: Temperature alarm 227
Robots that run hot and cold 229
Chapter 14: Halt! Who Goes There? 233
Detecting Motion: An Overview 233
Building the Motion-Detector System 235
Collecting the parts 235
Wired for motion 237
Testing the motion detector 240
Troubleshooting the motion-detector sensor 242
The assembly: Putting the sensor in place 243
The Brains of the Beast: The Software 244
Low-level code 245
High-level code 245
Troubleshooting 246
Real-World Applications 247
Doorway greeting 247
Pest alarm 250
Chapter 15: Yakety-Yak: Adding Speech to Your Robot 251
Straight Talk about Speech Technology 252
Electronic deflation to the rescue 252
The power of text-to-speech systems 253
Building a Speech System 255
Getting speech off-the-shelf 255
Collecting the parts 258
Wiring 258
Mounting the speech module 260
Testing 261
Troubleshooting 262
Creating Sound Software 263
Communicating with the sound module 263
The sound module command reference 264
Recording sound 266
Building Your Robot’s Vocabulary 268
Putting Speech to Work 268
Debugging 269
Navigation 269
Safety 269
Security 269
Data collection 269
Making music 270
Talking about Robots 270
Chapter 16: I See You 271
All about Video Systems 271
Some general guidelines 272
Cameras 272
Monitors 276
Tethered or wireless? 277
To hear or not to hear 279
Where to buy? 280
Pretesting 281
Mounting a Board Camera 282
Collecting components 282
Mounting the camera 283
Providing power 286
Determining connector gender 287
Making and soldering the cable 288
Creating a Tethered Video System 289
Video-only tether 290
Tethering other signals 291
Attaching cables 292
Using the tethered video system 294
Creating a Wireless Video System 294
Installing the transmitter 294
Connecting the receiver and monitor 295
Using the wireless video system 295
Troubleshooting 296
Wireless Data Links 297
Camera Positioning 298
Facing straight 299
Three-step panning 299
Slow scanning 300
Adding a tilt axis 301
Applications Using the Video System 302
Navigation 302
Inspection 303
Exploration 303
Security 303
A Robot’s Vision 304
Chapter 17: Controlling Your Robot from Afar 305
All about Remote Control 305
Optical remote control 306
Tethered remote control 306
Radio-frequency remote control 307
The Lowdown on RC Systems 307
Model RC systems 308
RC servo motors: The power behind RC 309
The RC servo-motor interface 310
RC system frequencies 310
Channels 311
Purchasing an RC System 311
What’s the cost? 311
Buying online 312
Installing an RC System 312
Wiring 313
Mounting the RC receiver 316
Antenna 318
Testing 319
Software 319
Troubleshooting 322
Half and Half: RC and Autonomous Behavior 322
Getting things wired 324
Software 324
Part V: The Part of Tens 327
Chapter 18: Ten Excellent Parts Suppliers 329
Tower Hobbies 329
Supercircuits 330
Mouser Electronics 330
Parallax 331
McMaster-Carr 332
Stock Drive Products 332
Radio Shack 333
80/20 334
Edmund Scientific 334
Parts Suppliers a la Carte 335
Circuit Specialties 335
Jameco Electronics 335
Marlin P Jones & Assoc 336
All Electronics 336
Mendelsons Electronics 336
Ramsey Kits 336
Small Parts 336
JK Micro 337
Carl’s Electronics 337
Chapter 19: Ten Safety Pointers 339
Cut Away from Your Body 339
Avoid the Pinch Points 339
Slipping Is Bad 340
Soldering Pitfalls 340
Hot Glue Follies 340
Super Glue on You 341
Dancing around the Drill 341
AC Stands for Are You Crazy! 341
Discharging Capacitors 342
Clipping Nippers 342
Index 343
