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A good book(s) on robotics. Self-learning rather than school text. — Parallax Forums

A good book(s) on robotics. Self-learning rather than school text.

MonkOFoxMonkOFox Posts: 2
edited 2008-06-20 23:45 in Robotics
I'm about to graduate next semester with a BS in Computer Science, I'm very fond of the Idea of doing robotics and such.
More than that,· building AND doing the logic programming for the contraptions.

If anyone knows of any really really good books that offer good insight on how to design robots.· Not so much as design with
certain kits, but more over design with various electrical/computer/electronic parts.

Or if you think I am jumping the gun and need to know other stuff, let me know [noparse]:)[/noparse]

Thanks,

Justin Fox

Comments

  • RobotWorkshopRobotWorkshop Posts: 2,307
    edited 2008-06-18 18:08
    One publication I recommend is SERVO magazine. It has a variety of robotics topics. You can also get their back issues in electronic form on CD. Their website is: www.servomagazine.com

    Robert
  • John AbshierJohn Abshier Posts: 1,116
    edited 2008-06-18 18:47
    I recommend Robot Building for Beginners and Intermediate Robot Building by David Cook and Robotic Explorations A Hands-On Introduction to Engineering By Fred G. Martin

    John Abshier
  • MonkOFoxMonkOFox Posts: 2
    edited 2008-06-18 19:47
    Sweet, I appreciate the help!

    Justin Fox
  • RobotWorkshopRobotWorkshop Posts: 2,307
    edited 2008-06-18 20:22
    I can second the recommendation for Fred's book. It is an excellent resource and I mentioned that in my last SERVO article.

    “Robotic Explorations A Hands-On Introduction to Engineering” by Fred G. Martin ISBN 0-13-089568-7

    There is also another:

    “MOBILE ROBOTS Inspiration to Implementation” by Joseph L. Jones and Anita M. Flynn ISBN 1-56881-011-3.

    These are both excellent books. I think there are some deals on Amazon for them so you might want to check there.

    Robert
  • Kevin WoodKevin Wood Posts: 1,266
    edited 2008-06-18 23:50
    Check out Make Magazine, and the books Practical Electronics for Inventors by Scherz, and Physical Computing by Igoe & O'Sullivan.
  • iamdenteddiskiamdenteddisk Posts: 66
    edited 2008-06-19 00:44
    I learned all I needed from the "illustrated guide to basic alectronics by john p steiner" and the little engineers mini notebooks sold by radio shack written by "forrest m mimms" the books where simple and written for laymen ,these dandy paper back books had enough info to take me 4.0 through electronics at ITT and while there I found the info the school had to cover was behind where I actualy was .From there my best advise is curl up with any good thick collage physics book I used "understanding physics by Isaac Asimov,get a good understanding of what is known,then with any device,appliance you can·take it apart and observe.

    Robotics is a medium of applied physics just like a wheel chair ,all else you need is schematics of usefull circuits,opperators manual's for any used devices for the most part the parallax downloads are verry informative.
    a little construction knollage
    ·There realy isnt some massive text that bounds in all you need to know, your background is it. Mine was electrical,metal urgy,music,computer programing so little device spec's and I was good to go
    your background,observations,instinct's,imagination are your tools.

    ·Aswell as reaching for the brass ring a supporting hobby help's like mine is collecting technicle text books and opperator's manuals ,ART, playing in a band,working as a jeweler, takeing apart everything I can get away with.
  • MinimumWageMinimumWage Posts: 72
    edited 2008-06-19 17:28
    I second the David Cook books, particularly "Intermediate Robot Building" for some great practical advice on motor drivers, sensors and mechanics as used on small BOE-bot sized robots. They are really the only two hardcopy robotics books I have ever found that are worth purchasing. Magazines like Make and the web (like this forum) are also excellent places to get tips and project ideas. Have fun!

    Mike
  • Beau SchwabeBeau Schwabe Posts: 6,566
    edited 2008-06-20 05:05
    BTS - (Before The Stamp) ... I found a book called "Robot Builders Bonanza" by Gordon McComb very useful as far as interface options to a PC and various other ideas for sensor inputs. I have one of the early Volumes, and I know that there are other volumes available, some of which now include using a Stamp. What I liked and found useful about the PC interfacing was that you were not confined to using the Serial or Parallel port. It showed you how to decode just about any port address that you wanted. At the time this opened many doors for "Do-it-yourself" ISA cards... Now days with PCI cards, it makes things a little more complicated, but not impossible.

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    Beau Schwabe

    IC Layout Engineer
    Parallax, Inc.
  • Timothy D. SwieterTimothy D. Swieter Posts: 1,613
    edited 2008-06-20 23:45
    "Robot Builder's Bonanaza" was my first book in robotics.· I too had an early edition nad boy was it neat!

    MonkOFOX, it sounds like you are interested in a book that is more programming oriented.· A few months ago I read through Designing Autonomous Mobile Robots·(title is a link to Amazon).· This book is more problem solving and programming oriented for designing robotic software.· The author speaks a lot from their experience implementing commercial robots.· I recommend this book for a more software sided approach, but it certainly isn't a book beginners would get into.

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    Timothy D. Swieter

    www.brilldea.com·- uOLED-IOC, RGB LEDs, TLC5940 driver PCB
    www.tdswieter.com
    One little spark of imagination is all it takes for an idea to explode
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