Customer Reviews

The Robotics Primer (Intelligent Robotics and Autonomous Agents series)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Based on years of course notes, Dr. Mataric has written a wonderfully accessible introduction to and survey of the entire field of robotics. Much collective wisdom from the history of this emerging discipline is contained in these pages. And the on-line workbook, with hands-on programming exercises, is a huge plus. Nothing else like this book exists in the robotics literature.

However, the reader should be warned that the book is rife with misprints. It is as if the book were not edited at all. MIT Press should be embarrassed at letting this book out the door in the state that it is in. Let's hope later printings correct the legion of errors. Were it not for the constant misprints, I would have given it 5 stars.

I enjoyed reading this book but I was looking for a book that more specifically discussed programming robots. The book takes such a general approach to that subject that I can't imagine it could be very useful to anyone.

I will give the author some benefit of doubt as I did not perform any of the experiments because you need your own robot, such as an accessorized iRobot Create, in order to perform the experiments and exercises. A robot and controllers can easily set you back $300-$500.

The book does not actually get down to the fundamentals of designing and fabricating your own robot although it devotes adequate space to the discussion of the advantages of different sorts of motor drives and sensors.

It was disappointing to me that author carefully distinguishes between a physical robot and a computer emulation and devotes almost no time to robot simulations.

Most chapters have suggestions for further reading. If you don't need this book for a class, I'd suggest that you borrow a library copy, glance through it, and jot down some of those references and buy them instead.

This is a nice book to read. It comes with a simple language and the topic is very interesting...Mine is a used copy purchased at amazon.com. I am using it and so far so well...

This book would probably be OK for a middle schooler. It briefly introduces very basic concepts in an often too cloying manner. It reads more as an entertainment kind of book than a useful technical reference. If you're someone who knows nothing about electronics or robots, and wants to know if they might be interested in getting started, this might be an OK book for you. If you're looking for a solid reference that you can come back to and help you solve actual robotics problems, look elsewhere.

If the book didn't call itself a primer, I would rate it lower. Even for an introduction, it's just too light on content and too heavy on cloying analogies for my taste.