A couple interesting submarine launched UAVs, one by Raytheon and another, VOLANS, built by a German company, are featured in this Register article. The Submarine Over the Horizon Organic Capabilities, or SOTHOC, built by Raytheon, is launched out of the waste disposal lock of a submarine. SOTHOC then decents to a preset depth where it rises to the surface and launches a unmanned flying vehicle to gather data. The UAV can relay the data back to the sub via antenna, or if the sub whishes to remain anonymous the data can be relayed via satellite back to the US. This system allows a submarine to lauch an UAV while remaining submerged, in contrast to the VOLANS, which launches via a mast attached to the robot. The VOLANS functions as a mobile periscope for the sub.

I’m anxiously waiting for the day when robotics achieves the pinnacle of engineering that is the “Retroencabulator.” This isn’t really robotics related, but I hope it inspires you to greatness.

I get a lot of emails and comments posted from folks asking questions about robotics. Unfortunately, most of them are rather specific and I just don’t have the time to answer them all individually.

Thankfully, that’s where a few cool products, books, and websites come into play. Back when I first got started in robotics (back in 1998 or so), there were very few books on the subject and even fewer websites or nifty products.

But, times have changed folks! Robots are now almost as cool as iPods and Emo.

I’ve put together a small list of items that you can use to 1) start your journey into robotics and 2) enhance your knowledge. Feel free to leave comments on other useful items. This is meant to be a starting point. It’s also a good place to find good gift ideas … hint hint hint.

Kits

1. LEGO Mindstorms

The venerable granddaddy of all easy-yet-powerful robotics kits, LEGO Mindstorms now comes in two flavors, the old version RIS 2.0 and the new version Mindstorms NXT. LEGO Mindstorms NXT sports an impressive array of new features, like ultrasonic range finders, powerful graphical programming environment based on LabView, and bluetooth, the old version Robotics Invention System 2.0 is still a good buy. You can pick up a set for under $200 off of eBay or perhaps find it on clearnace at your local toy store. Either way, LEGO makes outstanding building systems, and no roboticists shop is complete without it.

2. VEX Robotics Development System

I don’t personally own a VEX system, so I can’t say based on person experience, but I’ve heard lots of good things about them (if someone at Innovation First is reading this, hook me up). The kits are similar in design to an erector set of bygone years, and are very sturdy and well constructed. Vexlabs.com sells a wide array of add-ons and expansions that make the possibilities vast and varied.

3. Viper Robotics Development System

I recently did a complete review of the Viper robotics development system from Microbric. The kit is unique in that it has various modules that connect up to the central motherboard via little plastic connectors that also form the electrical connections. The kit is attractively priced and is well worth it, for the components you get.

The system is programmed in Visual Basic syntax and is based on the Atom processor from Basic Micro.

Books

Why learn the hard way, when you stand on the shoulders of others? These books will expand your knowledge and give you confidence about moving to the next level. Check your local bookstore, or use the links below to order off of Amazon (and help GoRobotics.net out!).

1. Robot Builder’s Bonanza, Third Edition (Robot Builder’s Bonanza)

An oldie-goldie. Gordon McComb does a bang-up job of introducing robotics to the real world. Check out our review of the 2nd Edition of Robot Builder’s Bonanza here.

2. Build Your Own Robot!

Karl Lunt wrote for Nuts and Volts (more on this later) for years. Afterwards, he assembled all his articles into this fabulous book, filled with nifty ideas on how to build a robot. This is great for your bookshelf. You can read our review of Build Your Own Robot! here.

3. Intermediate Robot Building

This is David Cook’s second book, in which he covers the topics of robotics in a bit more detail than his previous Robot Building for Beginners book.

Magazines

Books are great to have, but it’s always nice to have a steady stream of new information coming your way. This is a great motivator, and there’s no better way that by subscribing to some of these magazines.

1. Robot

ROBOT Magazine is a new magazine that focues on the educational and hobbiest market. The high-quality magazine always has interesting and informative articles for both the advanced user and beginners.  You can read our review of the first issue of ROBOT Magazine here.

2. Servo Magazine

Servo Magazine covers all things related to robotics. Not nearly as pretty or well layed out as ROBOT Magazine, but still informative. If anyone from SERVO is reading this, how about a little love and giving us a subscription!

3. Make: Technology on Your Time

This is one hefty magazine! Published quarterly, you can expect to find over 150 pages in this high quality “mook” (magazine + book). They cover all things related to hacking and making things, including robotics and electronics. Well worth the price.

4. Nuts and Volts

A great hobbiest magazine related to all things electronic.

5. Circuit Cellar

This is a bit above most beginners heads, but a great addition for the more advanced user.

Websites

Obviously, since you’re reading this, you’ve discovered the power of the web. Amplify that power by visiting these websites to learn about robotics.

1. GoRobotics.net

Of course we’d list ourselves first! Features robotics news, projects, and reviews.

2. The NXT Step

This a resource site for all things related to LEGO Mindstorms NXT (the first item on our list).

3. Robots Dreams

This site covers all the great robot news from Japan. Gives a fresh perspective on the other side of the world, and it’s in English!

4. Bot Junkie

More robot news to ease your cravings.

5. MAKE Magazine

Hackery and making from all around the internet. TONS of information.

6. Hack-A-Day

New hack every day. A must visit. Submit your hacks.

7. Engadget

All things gadgets. They also frequently link to us, so give them some love!

Toys

1. Pleo

Pleo is a life-like pet dinosaur. You can find out more about Pleo at PleoBot.com. Designed by the creater of the Furby, Pleo will learn and grow like a real animal. Pleo is a big favorite with adults and children alike.

2. Robosapien V2

WowWee toys makes a whole line of robots that are lots of fun and great for hacking. The RoboSapien is probably the most popular.

Hopefully, these links should get you started on your journey. If you have anything to add, please leave it in the comments below. Happy robot making!

This post is part of the ProBlogger group writing project!

I was recently offered the chance to review Microbric’s Viper Robotics Development Kit. I always love to try out new robot kits and see what’s on the market, so I jumped at the chance. Prior to Microbric contacting me, I had heard some about the kits. You may have read a prior review of the kit from our pals at robots.net, Sprocket’s Slog, or at Robots Dreams. It seemed like a unique concept and I was eager to see if it played out in reality.

Microbric, based in Australia, promptly shipped me a package containing the Viper kit along with the three main add-on kits: wheel kit, sumo kit, and line tracker kit.

The concept of ‘modules’ are the unique feature of this kit. They are the basic building blocks of a set. Each module is a self-contained unit with at least three connectors on a side, which provide power, ground, and signal to the main motherboard. This creates a modular system of construction that doesn’t require any extra wires or soldering. The modules are attached to each other, or the motherboard, via a ‘bric’. Each bric is a small nylon connector that contains three nuts. Three small screws are threaded into the nuts and connect the modules together. The screws form the electrical contacts between the modules.

To keep users from incorrectly wiring the modules together, each bric is keyed to allow it to be attached in only one way, and each module is marked to indicate which holes to align.

Kit Contents

• Each kit comes with a number of pieces, including

• 2 gear motors, with controllers

• IR sensor module

• 2 bump sensor modules

• 1 button module

• 1 switch module

• 2 led modules

• IR remote control

• 20+ brics

• screw driver

• foam wheels

• battery holders

• misc. connectors and pieces

• Basic Atom motherboard

The kit comes with a nice plastic container that can be used to store the parts. This is much like the original Mindstorms box and is great for keeping track of small parts.

A little bit of assembly is required in order to get started. The manual guides you through this process. This includes placing the small nuts into the brics (which can be tedious), attaching the battery holder to the motherboard, and detaching the various parts from their PCB holders.

The modules, motherboard, and connector pieces are high quality PCBs.

I had a bit of trouble assembling my first robot. It was often difficult to position the screws into the holes, and the nuts tended to fall out of the brics as I was trying to attach things. I imagine that after use the nuts will work themselves tightly into the nylon brics and not fall out as often. Perhaps a little dab of glue between the nuts and brics would also help.

I was also sometimes confused when trying to connect modules and making sure that they were facing the right direction. The keying on the brics is very slight and takes a bit of close examination to determine which side to place on which module. Some sort of indication molded into the bric’s plastic would probably help this.

The wheels form-fit nicely on the shafts of the motors and are easily removed if necessary. The motors are high quality and provide a decent amount of torque. I believe they are, or are very similar, to the GM11 gear motors from Solarbotics. However, keep in mind that Microbrics motor modules also contain a controller. A single line of code (a serial out command) is all that is required to command the motors at a certain speed and direction.

The programming environment for the Viper kit is the standard IDE from Basic Micro for their Basic Atom line of products. The Viper motherboard contains an OEM version of the microcontroller along with power regulation. The Basic Atom is programmed with Visual Basic syntax and is quite simple and powerful. It has hardware interrupts, serial outputs, servo control, and many other features. It should be noted that the Viper motherboard only brings out 16 I/O lines which eliminates the use of the extra A/D inputs.

Microbric also has several add-on kits, including an extra wheel and motor pack, a sumo robot pack, and a line following sensor pack. These kits are pictured below.

To be on the honest side there are some downsides to the Viper kit. For starters, the kit doesn’t come with a printed manual. This is not such an issue now-a-days with ink jet printers, but I always appreciate having something in paper to reference.

Secondly, and far more damaging, is the fact that the motherboard runs on triple A (AAA) batteries, and not double A’s. Alkaline AAA’s generally have a significantly smaller capacity than AA’s (1.1 Ah, compared to 2.8Ah). In addition, it’s difficult to find rechargeable triple A batteries. Microbric would do well to create an add-on pack for different power sources. Perhaps even a lithium polymer battery addition. It would also be nice to have a module that would allow the motherboard to be powered off of a wall transformer.

There are a few other minor complains, like how it’s easy to cut yourself when initially removing the parts from their PCB holders. It can also be sometimes difficult to maneuver your fingers in order to attach certain brics, especially when building upwards. I had to use the screw driver a few times in order to lever a piece into place.

Aside from these minor complains the Microbric Viper Robotics Development Kit is a sound platform for experimenting with robotics. It takes all the difficult out of correctly wiring parts and eliminates the danger of destroying delicate electronics by connecting them improperly. The Basic Atom is a good chip that can be easily programmed and is powerful.

The kit retails for about $140 USD (depending on the exchange rate). And can be shipped internationally. They even have a compact package for international shipping. The price of kit makes it well worth the purchase. $140 is a steal for what you get.

You can find more information about the kit here, and purchasing information here.

Thanks to Josh Richards from Microbric for letting us review the kit.

The following article will show you how to build a simple robot, called "The Beetle Robot", created by Jerome Demers. It’s great for beginners and easy to do.

This is the Beetle Robot v. 3 you are going to build:



Before starting, I suggest you to read the complete tutorials. This will greatly lower the chances of you making a mistake.



Tools Needed:

• soldering iron  ( here’s a helpful tutorial on soldering )
• electronic solder
• diagonal cutter
• Mini glue gun
  

Components for the robot

• 2x - small 1.5 Volts motors
• 2x - small paperclips
• 2x - big paperclips
• 2x - batteries AAA or AA
• 1x - battery holder AAA or AA
• 1x - 2 cm of heat shrink
• 1x - wooden pearl  (for the caster)
• 1x - meter of electric wire
• 2x - Sub-mini lever SPDT switches
  
  

Here are the serial numbers of the components and tools from RadioShack .

Component

Number

soldering iron	64-2184
electronic solder	64-006
diagonal cutter	64-2951
1.5 Volts motor	273-223
battery holder	270-398
SPDT switch	275-016

Most of the components can be bought for much cheaper at Digi-Key, Jameco, or similar. At Solarbotics you can find the dual AA battery holder and the Mabuchi motor. You can find these components at any good electronic store.

Ok, so you know nothing about robotics huh? Well, you’ve come to the
right place. Unfortunately there are lots of people like you out there.
Robotics isn’t an easy hobby, and there really isn’t a whole lot of
information out there, especially compared to other hobbies. But, with
a little diligence and hard work, you’ll be up and running in no time.
Below are 10 hints and tips to getting started. Hopefully they’ll help
you avoid some common mistakes.
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Mindstorms
Robot Builder’s Bonanza
Roomba
Leatherman
RoboSapien V2
Subscription to Robot Magazin
Make Magazine
Servo Magazine
Nuts and Volts
Circuit Cellar
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Yesterday I received a preview copy of Robot Magazine’s "premier issue." After having seen it in very rough form during RoboNexus, I have to say that the actual print version is even more impressive. For those of you familiar with RC Driver or Fly RC, Robot Magazine will be from the same publisher, Maplegate Media, and have the same high-quality, thick paper, and rugged construction of the other magazines. Tom Atwood is also the editor of Robot Magazine.

 

The magazine’s purpose is described in the opening comments from the Editor, Tom Atwood. He writes,

 

Robot magazine’s coverage is multi-tiered. We will focus on hobby robots that come ready-to-run and on complete robot kits such as the emerging Robo-One humanoid robots … We will cover homebuilt robot projects, techno hacks and the latest plug & play accessories and gear.

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The folks at McGraw Hill graciously sent me a copy of Edwin Wise’s new book, Robotics Demystified, for me to review. Unfortunately, I got it right around the time that I left for Hong Kong (study abroad) and I’m just now getting around to actually reviewing it.

The title calls it a "self-teaching guide" and the back cover reads; "Now anyone with an interest in robotics can gain a deeper understanding - without formal training, unlimited time, or genius IQ." So, I cracked open the book to find out if this is true or not.








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This is a little how-to guide on crimping connectors for various electronics projects. The art of crimping is sometimes a difficult one, but necessary for 1) reliable and 2) decent looking connections. Breadboards are nice for quick wiring projects but in the long run they are unreliable and look pretty nasty.

To crimp you will need:

• Crimper (or needle nose pliers if you’re really good)
• Wire (24 -26 gague usually)
• Crimp pins
• Housings (possibly)

Good crimpers don’t come cheap. Expect to pay $30 - $60 dollars for a good one. If you shop around you can find ‘ok’ crimpers for less. Most crimp tools you find in a automotive section of a store aren’t suitable for small wired electrical projects. You need to find something that will fit 22 - 26 gague wires. This crimp tool from Jameco works well for connetors for D-sub serial cable pins (it can also work on female/male crimp pins).

Take the wire you want to crimp something to and strip off about 4 mm from the end. You basically want to strip off enough insulation so that the exposed wire rests in the wire channel (the smaller second one) and the insulation rests in the insulation channel (the larger first one).

 

The wire should fit into the channels like the illustration shows. Make sure you have stripped enough insulation, but not too much.

Next, grab your crimp tool. On many tools there will be two different "levels" on the tooth of the tool. This makes sure that the insulation channel has a big crimp than the wire channel, since the stripped wire has a smaller diameter than the insulation. For tools that don’t have two different sizes on the tooth, you will have to make two crimps one for the insulation and using a smaller size, crimp the wire.

 

You can see the two different groove sizes in the picture to the left.

 

The next two images show how the pin is placed into the crimp too. The larger side of the crimp ‘tooth’ should be where the insulation channel fits.

 

Sorry for the blurry picture, but you can make it out, the pin is sitting in the groove with the ‘tabs’ facing into the groove. It is placed so that when the crimp too is squeezed the tabs bend inwards and create a "heart" shape.

If you apply light pressure to the tool at this point the crimp pin will slide up into the groove and be held in place.

At this point you can put the stripped end of the wire through the hole that is made by the crimp too and the insulation channel, like pictured:

Do your best to make sure the insulation channel only covers the insulation and the wire channel covers only the wire.

 

Apply firm pressure to the tool and it should perfectly bend the crimp tabs inwards so that they "bite" into the wire and insulation and form a solid contact.

It should look a bit like this:

You can seein the picture how the wire channel tabs bend inwards and bite into the insulation.

The pins pictured above are pins that would fit into a D-sub serial connector housing with which you can make a serial cable.

To connect something up to a bread board you can crimp on male crimp pins, like the ones I used on a programming cable I made for a Basic Stamp + breadboard.

 

If you wish to have crimp connections that connect up to square male pin headers you can buy handy female crimp pins.

The final step to making good connections to buy buy some housings to put your crimpped pins into. The housings keep all the pins seperate and easily pluggable.

I hope this helps someone avoid nasty wiring messes in the future. Happy robot hacking!

In this article, Jean-Christophe shows you how to maximize the utility you get out of a Sharp GPD12 rangefinder.

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This is a review of the SR-07 Speech Recognition Kit

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Craig Gardner shows you how to build an infrared remote decoder - control your robot with a TV remote!

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Zac Soden reviews Combat Robots Complete

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Zac Soden reviews Lego Mindstorms Interfacing

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