Product Description

Easy-to-read guide provides directions on integrating personal digital assistants and robots into a single, remote-controlled powerhouse. Discusses innovative concepts and designs, showing how to allow any PDA to communicate with and control a robot; establish a wireless link between a PDA and a robot; and acquire low cost, standard, and easily obtainable components. Softcover.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1057277 in Books
• Published on: 2003-07-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 232 pages

From the Back Cover
BUILD A ROBOT AND MAKE IT RUN -- RIGHT FROM YOUR PDA!

The virtual chasm between PDAs and robots has been spanned, with McGraw-Hill's PDA Robotics: Using Your Personal Digital Assistant to Control Your Robot, an easy-to-read guide to integrating these two pieces of technology into a single, remote-controlled powerhouse.

Written in easy-to-understand language by a renowned software designer and robotics expert, this unique resource reveals innovative concepts and designs, helping you to build your own PDA-controlled robot from the ground up. As a result, you'll be able to:

* Allow any PDA to communicate with and control your robot
* Establish a wireless RF link between your PDA and robot
* Acquire low-cost, standard, and easily obtainable components
* Learn about special software, control circuits, and interface ideas for creating artificial life forms
* Customize modules easily
* And more!

Perfect for hobbyists, students of electronics, and engineers alike, this book is your entree into the brave new world of PDA-controlled robots!

Inside:
* The Anatomy of a PDA
* Software IDEs and Electronic Design
* Movement Systems
* Wireless RF
* Room Radar and Sonar Devices
* And Much More!

About the Author
Doug Williams is a software designer fir Agfa Healthcare. A resident of Ontario, Canada, he has worked in the computer industry for nearly 10 years, specializing in radar systems control, medical imaging software, and electronic interface technologies.

Customer Reviews

fantastic !
I would like to thank the author for helping me to create an Infrared bridge between an electonic project that I have been working on and my PDA ! I searched the net and the library for this information to no avail.

I found all the information useful and will apply some of the design concepts and software in my next project.

I must counter the last review by janek243. The book contains no more than perhaps 5% microchip specs ! The specs that are included help explain the components used and tie the project together. The subject was more than just 'touched on', the author has created a great working piece of technology.

Looking forward to more of Doug Williams' work.

good intro, but many typos and unreferenced technical specs
Like janek243, I was disappointed that so much of the book
was copied (seemingly verbatim) from technical specs on-line,
though the sources didn't seem to be referenced. It's fairly
obvious where these sections start and end, because they lack
the typos and grammatical problems of much of the rest of
the book.

Despite its flaws, I recommend it to anyone who, like me,
is interested in interfacing their iPaq (or Palm) with hardware.
The book has given me several pointers to other material and
manufacturer websites. I'm glad I bought it; I just wish it
had a higher signal-to-noise ratio.

Recipe for a Robot
Following discussions with the author, I have amended this review.

As a University Lecturer, I was disappointed with this book
because it contains large sections of material copied from
datasheets and web sites without proper references. We try to
teach our students to be ethical, and not to simply cut and
paste from the Internet without references. The author assures
me that permission was obtained from Microsoft, Intel,
Microchip, Sharp, etc. to re-publish their material.

It is not a text for a beginner if you want to learn about
robotics or how to design your own circuits and program
embedded systems. For instance, it assumes that you can already
program in C.

However, it does contain detailed instructions for building a
robot that can be controlled using the Infra Red port on a PDA.
If you don't mind making your own circuit board, then this
might be the book for you, but you really need some basic
background in electronics and computers if you intend to build
this robot. If you treat it as a recipe, and try to learn from
the exercise, then you might find it useful.