Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #147003 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-26
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 211 pages

From the Back Cover
GREAT 'DROIDS, INDEED!

This unique guide to sophisticated robotics projects brings humanoid robot construction home to the hobbyist. Written by a well-known figure in the robotics community, Build Your Own Humanoid Robots provides step-by-step directions for 6 exciting projects, each costing less than $300. Together, they form the essential ingredients for making your own humanoid robot.

Build Your Own Humanoid Robots & Amazing and Affordable Projects
Serious enough to interest robot professionals, the plans inside offer serious fun to hobbyists. They give you the power to breathe life into a mechanical being with amazingly human qualities, and feature all the instructions you need for programming the inexpensive chips that give your humanoid brains and sensitivity.

6 Astounding Projects:
* Robotic Arm, Wrist, and Hand. Build a versatile robotic arm system to give your humanoid the ability to manipulate objects/ A PIC microcontroller provides motor control and feedback.

* Personal Computer Interface. Learn how to interface the robot arm or any other robotics project to a personal computer for complete control and feedback.

* Visual Basic Control Software. Develop flexible bidirectional communications software to control the robot arm or other projects from your personal computer.

* Voice Recognition Control. Make your robotic arm and walking robot obey your spoken commands with this completely embedded control system that can also be used for many other applications.

* Expressive, Speaking Face. Enable your robot to show happiness, surprise, excitement, anger, and more, as it speaks any words you transmit electronically.

* Bipedal Walking Robot. It's your own amazing small scale, fully autonomous robot! Learn about sensors, analog-to-digital converters, DC motor control, microcontrollers, feedback, and control systems.

Also included is the background information regarding construction materials, test equipment, printed circuit board fabrication, microcontrollers, and programming and design considerations needed to create the humanoid robot projects.

About the Author
Karl Williams is an independent robotics researcher, electronics guru, and software developer. He is the author of the popular robotics guide Insectronics: Build Your Own Six Legged Walking Robot and the follow-up Amphibionics: Build Your Own Biologically Inspired Robots, both from TAB/McGraw-Hill. A resident of Ontario, Canada, he has written for the magazines Nuts and Volts, SERVO, and Conformity. Winner of an IBM award for his design of a computer-controlled robotic arm, he hosts a robotics and electronics Website. He is with AGFA HealthCare Informatics, a leading medical imaging software company.

Customer Reviews

Another disappointment... :(
The way this book is put togther is what leaves me feeling a bit ripped off. I feel the author and/or publisher owe me some money! At least one third of the book was copied over from manufacturer's free publications. If you want to read a list of available programming instructions contained within the language written about in the book just vist the mfg web site and save your money. And, Hex listings in the book! Give me a break! You can read what this book has to offer in under an hour! This book stinks...

Detailed and inspirational - worth the read!
Karl does a good job of leading you through the basic concepts of humaniod robotics in this well written, well annotated and very descriptive text on the subject. His detailed plans are easy to follow and his programs are well written and well explained throughout. He provides specific recommendations for parts as well as vendors and spends time explaining his choices. If you're interested in learning not only how to write useful PIC applications for robotics but also how to build robotics that implement those applications, then this is the book for you. This is a must have for your library of robotics books!

An amazing book for robotic beginners.
The most interesting part of this book is on its pratical topics. A lots of briliant ideas can be learned from this book, especially for those who would like to build up their first robotic project from scratch.

Things that need to be improved are on the materials used for the projects in this book. Less heavy duty tools required would be nice. The discussions should be more focussing on robotic sensors and control parts.

Great Collection!!!