Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #340961 in Books
• Published on: 2000-12-17
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 462 pages

From the Back Cover

Written by one of the founders of the famous MIT "6270" Lego Robotic design Competition, Robotic Explorations: A Hands-On Introduction to Engineering engages students in hands-on robot building, emphasizing technological systems of all kinds—electrical, mechanical, and computational. A first text for students as well as reference for practitioners, the book provides all the practical information needed to create an introductory freshman-level laboratory class. This versatile and pioneering book sparks the imagination and leads the reader into many thought-provoking and challenging engineering situations.

Robotic Explorations includes:

• An introduction to the field of engineering design, accessible to students at multiple undergraduate levels, with concepts relevant to electrical, mechanical, and software systems.
• Principles of mechanical design, illustrated using the catalog of parts available in the LEGO Technic® system.
• Step-by-step instructions for building "My First Robot," a tutorial for beginning explorations of control.
• Applications of various control strategies including traditional proportional/derivative feedback, behavioral robotics, and hierarchical control.
• Designs and application ideas for robotic sensors.
• Project guidelines for designing robot contests to facilitate students' learning of particular engineering concepts.
• Documentation for using educational robotics technology developed at MIT—Handy Board control hardware and Interactive C software.

Customer Reviews

engineering manual
After 12 years of running an engineering club, I finally found a helpful book. I work with students from 6th to 12th grades. My 8th and 9th graders have no problem following this book. As a matter of fact I can't keep it on my desk. It is frequently either checked out or on the floor with the "builder". Yes, it is a freshman college book but my kids seem to have no problems reading it. My students participate in BEST, FIRST and Botball.

Taking the next step
This book presents an introduction to various aspects of robot building and planning. It is written as an undergraduate textbook, and contains numerous exercises throughout the text. The book assumes that students and other readers will have access to Handyboards and LEGO Technic equipment, as well as a desktop PC and hobbyist-level soldering equipment. The book walks the reader through analyzing a Handyboard, how to use it, how to build custom sensors and motors, and how to write programs in assembly language. All of this information would be very useful to first-year engineering students as it would help them put theory from many of their other classes into practice. Nevertheless, most of the tasks and programs described in the book could actually be built with a standard LEGO RCX brick. On the other hand, a person who masters the material in this book would be able to take advantage of the extra sensors and motors that the Handyboard supports and build far more sophisticated robots than would be possible with LEGO Mindstorms equipment. Anyone who builds robots using LEGO equipment, whether with a Handyboard or an RCX, will find information in this book about Braitenberg vehicles, LEGO design, control theory, and robotics contests quite useful. The introduction to Assembly language in Appendix A is also presented in an easily accessible style.

Thinking about learning how to build a robot?
I found this to be an excellent introduction to how to build a fully functional, autonomous robot. This book covers everything you need to build robots using LEGO Technics (think LEGO blocks plus gears, motors, etc.) and a Handyboard, a robot brain developed to get the hard digital electronics out of the way so you can concentrate on putting together a good design with motors and sensors and software intelligence.

As someone looking for how to break into robotics without first getting bachelors in Electrical Engineering or Mechanical Engineering, this book was for me. I got the basics of the two topics covered and was able to dive right into the interesting "what can I do with my robot" scenarios.

This book also goes into some detail on inexpensive sensor components out in the electronics market and how to use them in robots. I found this to be a great source of ideas and instructions even when not creating robots using the Handyboard brain.

For those looking to dabble, be aware that this is a book best used in conjunction with real, live robot parts. (...)