Sparky and Pokey — 3 weeks ago
Worth doing!
I think building an autonomous robot is within reach of many people. You don’t have to build the robot totally from scratch. It doesn’t have to be super complicated. I’d love to help more folks achieve this goal.
The key is to start based on what you know. If you’re brand new to this, one of the best ways to learn is to get a kit that makes it very easy to construct and program robots. From what I’ve seen so far, the Lego Mindstorms NXT is a superb option. It’s a kit that you can grow into over time, starting with simpler, graphics-based programming options and working up to very advanced C language programming.
Many more kit options exist (Parallax BoeBot, Revell Vexplorer, and more). Another option is to construct BEAM type robots, which require no programming and are extremely inexpensive to build (but require soldering). There are loads of great books (I’d be happy to recommend several, but “123 Robotics Experiments for the Evil Genius” is approachable for all skill levels—and you don’t really have to be evil or a genius!)
I’ve been reading about robotics and thinking about building my own for at least 15 years (you don’t have to wait so long before building your first robot, though). Finally, this year, I set out to build one. And ended up building two! I started with a RadioShack HexBug to get motivated ($10) then got a kit. I then built Sparky and, later, I constructed Pokey, which competed in a local Robotics Fire Fighting competition.
You can read more about Sparky, Pokey and other robotics experiments on my robotics blog (there are more than a few out there). Hopefully the info I share will help people interested in robotics as I think it is a fun, rewarding, and interesting hobby. http://bot-thoughts.blogspot.com/ Let me know if I can help out!








