The Definitive Guide to Building Java Robots (Hardcover)

by Scott Preston (Author)
Key Phrases: basic stamp program, sonar servos, public void reverse, Code Discussion, Cancel Figure, Java Advanced Imaging (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Scott Preston works as a technical architect for a large Columbus consulting firm where he resides with his lovely wife, Emily. Scott has over 15 years of software and electrical experience including positions with The U.S. Navy, Bank One, UUNET, and Covansys Inc., in addition to running his own robotics company, Preston Research LLC, where he gives robotic lectures in conjunction with COSI (Center of Science and Industry) and manufactures small Java-enabled robots called CubeBots®.

About the Author
Scott Preston works as a technical architect for a large Columbus consulting firm where he resides with his lovely wife, Emily. Scott has over 15 years of software and electrical experience including positions with The U.S. Navy, Bank One, UUNET, and Covansys Inc., in addition to running his own robotics company, Preston Research LLC, where he gives robotic lectures in conjunction with COSI (Center of Science and Industry) and manufactures small Java-enabled robots called CubeBots®. Preston is also a member of the Java Community Process, and the Central Ohio JUG. Read more on his website, Scott's Bots.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 440 pages
• Publisher: Apress (November 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590595564
• ISBN-13: 978-1590595565
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #177,807 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars OK high-level guide to Java control of robots, January 12, 2006

By	calvinnme "Texan refugee" (Fredericksburg, Va) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

It is really difficult to rate this book. If you are a hobbyist who is somewhat Java-savvy and you are looking for a book that gives you rather non-complex code that performs complex tasks primarily by harnessing the power of native as well as open source Java API's, I would give this book four stars. If you are looking for some technical or computational details on some of the interesting topics that the author covers I would give it two stars since there is very little of that in this book. Therefore, considering all possible audiences, I give it 3 stars, or an average rating. This book is not a tutorial on the Java API's that it mentions, but it is the only book I know of that even talks about how to do anything with speech synthesis or voice recognition in Java using the free implementation of the Java Speech API, which is FreeTTS. I actually tried out some of the author's Java speech programs, and they do work as advertised. The author performs his interesting tasks by harnessing the Java Beans activation framework, the Java Communications API for serial port communication, FreeTTS and Sphinx API's for speech applications, the Java Advanced Imaging API and Java Media Framework for computer vision and camera control, and the servlet and JSP API for more complex control of a robot. He has even written his own package that pulls together all of these API's to perform integrated tasks, such as object recognition that integrates image processing, camera control, and speech recognition. Thus, I recommend this for a hobbyist who already knows Java and wants to use that language to control robots at a very high system-level. I do not recommend this book for people looking for theory or algorithms related to the topic of robot control. I notice that Amazon does not show the table of contents so I do that here:
1. A Primer
2. Serial Communication
3. Motion
4. Sensors
5. Speech
6. Vision
7. Navigation
8. Other Topics
9. Sample Programs
A. Definitive Guide API (Author's Software)
B. Microcontroller Reference
C. Robot Parts Reference

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good book on this subject., March 19, 2007

By	A. Amendolare (NY) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you want to control a microprocessor with your PC using Java programs then this is the book to show you how.

You will need to know Java in order to understand the programs. You'll have to set up the Java communications Api, which is just a matter of downloading it from the Sun website and then placing the files in the correct directories on you PC.

He illustrates the use of the Basic Stamp II [...]. This is a great microprocessor to get started with because it's very easy to use and they have great support for beginners. You don't need to know how to program the Basic Stamp as a prerequisite, you can learn this while doing it using a very simple dialect of Basic programming. You can also use the same microprocessor programs he wrote for the Stamp for use with PicBasic, (with some editing) since they're very similar.

You don't need experience programming microprocessors, you learn as you do.
You do need to know Java in order to understand the PC programs written in Java. Even without previous Java experience you can still compile and run the programs from this book and make the "Robots".

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Good Way To Get Started Quickly, January 10, 2006

By	John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

To go with this book be sure to visit www.scottsbots.com. Here you will find color pictures and additional description of the various robots described in the book. (There might also be an update or two to the software presented in the book).

This is one of the few books around that combine both software (Java in this case) and hardware design. Building working robots require both, and here both are presented, although the real focus of the book is on the software. The hardware is specialty modules that are designed to handle various robotic functions common in modern robotics. These include fairly complex subjects such as speech and vision.

The focus of the book, however is on the software. The hardware items basically are only converters that change sensed input into a stream of bits, or take a stream of bits and then convert them into motion, speech or whatever. Accepting this kind of input and outputting the appropriate control secquences is the subject of this book. It is a book that summarizes currently available components and works with them to make functioning units.

It's a great place to start learning about or working in robotics.