Yet another article about US FIRST. Dale at RobotHaven posted a nice round up of Sourceforge.net related robotics projects. It looks like the folks from Whitebox Robotics have started a company blog. First post entitled "The White Box Robotics PC-BOT Manifesto". Oh, and they've also upd…
Today I went to Atmel's 2005 Microcontroller Seminar series in my lovely homeown. I usually like to attend these because 1) they give away cool stuff and 2) there is usually a good lunch involved. This time 'round I didn't win anything, but the lunch was good. They gave out their (now) standard …
In this article, Jean-Christophe shows you how to maximize the utility you get out of a Sharp GPD12 rangefinder. Overview: This application note is intended to provide a good overview of the Sharp GP2D12 sensor (Fig. 1) and its use, especially for dynamics application. I hope it will…
Craig Gardner shows you how to build an infrared remote decoder - control your robot with a TV remote! Adding a form of remote control to your robot can be fun but radio can sometimes be over kill. Infrared such as used for your TV, VCR and other equipment is a simple way to add control to a proj…
Zac Soden reviews Combat Robots Complete UNLESS you have pay TV, there is not much coverage of robotic combat here in Australia. Of course there is the occasional airing of Robot Wars, but other than that we don't get much exposure to this quite fast growing sport. This lack of exposure also mea…
Zac Soden reviews Lego Mindstorms Interfacing THE LEGO Mindstorms Robotics Invention System is the most advanced construction toys to date and has been amazingly successful, opening the LEGO market to a whole new audience of builders, both young and old. Being a fan of all things LEGO, I had to g…
Zac Soden reviews Easy Microcontrol'n A YEAR ago I would have never imagined myself programming a PICmicro MCU in assembly language. Even just considering learning the assembly code seemed a daunting task, let alone writing my own programs in it. But all that changed when around four months ago my …
Zac takes a look at the TAB Electronics Build Your Own Robot Kit TAB Electronics Build Your Own Robot Kit Designers: Myke Predko and Ben Wirz Publisher: McGraw-Hill Rating: 4/5 Notes: Excellent for beginners PROBABLY a month ago I remember visiting my local Dick Smith Electronics and noticing a…
This is a large review of many different Leatherman multitools - perfect for building robots with!In a geek's toolbox, especially robot geeks, there are loads of great tools: pliers, soldering irons, solder suckers, drills, screw drivers, and the list goes on and on. However, one tool that no robot…
This is a review of Savage Innovation's new microcontroller, the OOPic 2 By now, all the regular readers here at The GoRobotics Network are probably aware of the OOPic processors. This little beauty is loaded with great features (and a great price) that make it quite attractive to robot builders…
This is a review of Joe Nagata's LEGO Mindstorms Idea Book While surfing around the 'net the other day I came across the website of No Starch Press. What caught my eye was the fact that they published a couple of LEGO Mindstorms books that I've seen around. While I don't have LEGO M…
This is a review of the book Robotsapiens One of the latest additions to the growing array of robotics related books is the book entitled Robosapiens. The authors describe their new book as a "field guide to our mechanical future." Husband and wife team, Peter Menzel and Fait…
Do not miss the new, up-to-date and detailed How to Build a Robot - Grand Tutorial Series This article lists some ideas for starting a simple robot. A good read for beginners. If you like this article, check out this. How to Build A Simple Robot, The Beetle Robot. This is the first of a series o…
Here's a nifty hack to add a shaft encoder directly into a servo box. Parts:1. Servo - Preferrably a Futaba or Tower Systems2. Drill3. Photointerrupter - Rat. Shack #276-142 (NOT the package with the diode and transistor separate),or any standard 'U' shaped photointerrupter …
Here's instructions on how to make a simple and cheap small robot base. Ever since my initial start in robotics I've been fascinated with small robots. Small 'bot seem to have this amazing charm about them. Maybe it's the 'wow!' factor, or maybe it's 'just because.' This tutorial will step you …
This article shows how to use an ADC chip on your next project. Introduction For this this project you can either choose to use the MAX186 or the MAX187. The differences between these two chips are described below. The MAX187 is an 12 bit o…
