Intermediate Robot Building (Technology in Action) [Paperback]

David Cook (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 28, 2010 | ISBN-10: 1430227540 | ISBN-13: 978-1430227540 | Edition: 2

For readers of Robot Building for Beginner (Apress, 2002 and 2009), welcome to the next level. Intermediate Robot Building, Second Edition offers you the kind of real-world knowledge that only renowned author David Cook can offer.

In this book, you’ll learn the value of a robot heartbeat and the purpose of the wavy lines in photocells. You’ll find out what electronic part you should sand. You’ll discover how a well-placed switch can help a robot avoid obstacles better than a pair of feelers. And you’ll avoid mistakes that can cause a capacitor to explode.

Want a robot that can explore rooms, follow lines, or battle opponents in mini-sumo? This book presents step-by-step instructions and circuit and part descriptions so that you can build the robot featured in the book or apply the modules to your own robot designs.

Finally, you’ll find the complete schematics for Roundabout, a room explorer that requires no programming and uses only off-the-shelf electronics. With Roundabout, you’ll use many of the same techniques used by professional robotics engineers, and you’ll experience many of the same challenges and joys they feel when a robot “comes to life.”

What you’ll learn

• How to build a robot from scratch
• Digital electronics and moderate machining
• How to use and integrate modern modules useful to all robots: power supplies, motor couplers, motor drivers (including H-bridges), opponent and obstacle detectors, and floor sensors.
• How to embrace and extend the base robot design
• How to use Roundabout, which operates with off-the-shelf brains, so that no programming is required
• How the additions of a microcontroller, configuration switches, and even a music module all come together as a final two-tier automaton showing a versatile Robot who is seemingly the master of its domain.

Who this book is for

This book is aimed at intermediate builders: adults, college students, and advanced high school students. It requires background experience in electronics, at least to the extent covered by Robot Building for Beginners.

Because the hobby involves soldering, electricity, and light machining, the writing is targeted toward individuals with those capabilities.

The book has been referenced in a number of high school and college courses.

Table of Contents

1. Assembling a Modular Robot
2. Comparing Two Types of Homemade Motor Couplers and Common Errors to Avoid
3. Making a Fixture and Drilling Solid Rods for a Coupler
4. Finishing the Solid-Rod Motor Coupler
5. Building a Motor Inside a Wheel
6. Understanding the Standards and Setup for Electronic Experiments
7. Creating a Linear Voltage-Regulated Power Supply
8. Making Robot Power Supply Improvements
9. Driving Miss Motor
10. Driving Mister Motor
11. Creating an Infrared Modulated Obstacle, Opponent, and Wall Detector
12. Fine-Tuning the Reflector Detector
13. Roundabout Robot!
14. Test Driving Roundabout
15. If I Only Had a Brain
16. Building Roundabout’s Daughterboard
17. Adding the Floor Sensor Module
18. Cooking Up Some Robot Stew

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

David Cook is an engineering manager at Motorola. He has 20 years of experience as a software developer, creating everything from award-winning computer games to mobile background-check applications for police. Self-taught in electronics and basic mechanics, David explains his years of robot experiences to the average backyard scientist in a comfortable and helpful manner, without scholarly intimidation. David hosts the popular robot site RobotRoom.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Apress; 2 edition (May 28, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1430227540
• ISBN-13: 978-1430227540
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 0.9 x 9.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #146,360 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > Computers & Technology > Computer Science > Artificial Intelligence > Robotics

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Ultimate Skill Builder for Robotics--Machining,Electronic,Microcontroller August 9, 2010

By Ira Laefsky VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

David Cook, builds advanced skills in autonomous robot construction in an excellently designed text following on (but not necessarily depending upon) his excellent "Robot Building for Beginners". This outstanding tutorial assumes some basic skills in robot construction, and then describes and exquisitely illustrates the development of Machining, Mechanical, Electronic, and Microcontroller Modules around a "Roundabout Robot" Project. Mr. Cook builds out independently the skills used in each phase or area of robot construction around a suggested unified project. The Robot Constructor Hobbyist can rely on standard pre-planned modules for those aspects of robot construction that are of lessor interest while choosing to advance his/her skills in particular areas that are described in detail for the "Roundabouts" construction, gaining Machine Shop Skills, Electronic Design and Construction toolsets, or advanced skills in developing the Microcontroller "Brains" of a Robot. While I could just admire and learn from his explicit instructions and high-quality gray-scale photographs of Machining Practice, I do feel qualified to comment on his "Brains" and Microcontroller module entitled "If I Only Had A Brain". In this section he proceeds lightly with the details of Physical Computing and Basic Microcontroller skills that can easily be gathered from other books and online references, he provides an excellent guide to choosing between discrete Digital Logic chips and Microcontrollers, excellent heuristics in choosing a controller or Microcomputer chip, and advanced means of troubleshooting and making failsafe the Microcontroller Brain of a Robot using Watchdog Timers and Heartbeat Displays. I know of no other Hobbyist or "Professional" Robotics book that provides this level of understanding of the Intermediate and Advanced Use of Microcontrollers and Microcomputers.

This book is the Ultimate Skill Builder for the Robotics Hobbyist who wishes to advance beyond the simplest robot projects.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Introduction May 13, 2011

By Emily Egeland

Format:Paperback

David Cook's second book is an excellent sequel to the first. Like the
first, this is a hobbyist book aimed at those interested in table top
robotics. It documents his exploration in robotics using easy to get
parts for most hobbyists, and does good job of explaining the basic
theory to the layperson. A basic understanding of electronics and
mechanics is useful to take away as much as possible from the book,
but with just the skills learned in the first book, it is easy to copy
his simple designs.

By no means is this an advanced book. Those with some background in
electronics or computer science may find the book a bit lacking on the
theory behind the designs, but it hits it's target demographic quite
well. Anyone who has built a small robot or is familiar with circuits
will have no trouble following even the more advanced topics in this
book.

He includes a brief overview of the basic parts of any robot. The
first section includes several examples on the mechanical construction
of a robot. Many of the examples include mechanical parts custom
fabricated on a mechanical mill, though sources for similar parts are
included. He then discusses power supply and isolation concepts. A
large part of the book discusses various approaches of brushed DC
motor driving using NPN transistors or MOSFETs, and is probably one of
the more valuable sections. There is a short section on sensor design
but the examples presented in detail are somewhat sparse. Finally, a
section on interfacing a controller (purpose built or programmable) to
the hardware is gone over. This section is by far the most lacking, as
this book is more focused on the hardware implementation.

Overall, the book presents a good guide to getting a simple tabletop
robot up and running, but doesn't discuss much of the more advanced
topics a budding roboticist might find useful. This is by no means a
software book, but by the time you're done with the examples in this
book, you'll have a good platform for mobile robot programming.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars I'm a bit dissappointed with the second edition June 11, 2010

By Christopher T. Dahle

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Initially I was very enthusiastic about the second edition of Intermediate Robot Building, but over the last few months I have become a bit disappointed. Yes, it does contain lots of great information on milling machines, motor drivers, the use of micro-controllers, and great information about the use of obstruction, edge, and proximity detecting sensors, all of which I am interested in learning, and yes it is very well written. But I have placed the project on an increasingly permanent hold.

Prior to the release of the second edition, I had begun to accumulate the parts for the Roundabout Robot, using the parts list published on Mr. Cook's website. I have accumulated nearly all the parts, fabricated a chassis and drive components controlled by my "Sandwich" robot's modular brain. So I am disappointed that the circuit boards needed for the Roundabout robot were not returned to the market with the release of the new edition.

I am hopeful that Mr. Cook will either resume supplying the circuit board to S___________s, or will license some other commercial entity to produce it, but unless that happens, I probably will not ever complete the project. True, I can have a board etched from the artwork on the Robot Room website, but with alternatives such as the BOE-BOT and the Arduino Serb readily available, this becomes an expensive and unnecessary hurdle for robot builders who want to move beyond the Sandwich project toward programmable, re-purpose-able robots.