Robotics for Beginners: words of wisdom from a hobbyist who's still alive

I've been burned, electrocuted, and attacked by a rampaging robot* enough time to know the basic "do"s and "don't"s of robotics.


I think we forgot to solder in the off switch...

I'm by no means an expert, but all the same I have a bit of advice for the beginner robotics hobbyist.

I recommend that if you go the book route you avoid most of the "Build a bot" titles. I got the most out of books and manuals on the microcontrollers I was using. The 3 picaxe manuals rock and are free (available at picaxe.co.uk) and I hear that there's a great Arduino book out, but I haven't had the chance to use any Arduinos yet (namely due to cost).

MAKE (makezine.com) has some great stuff on Arduinos in their blog and video series called "How-to Tuesdays".

Here's what I recommend: start with a cheap picaxe (don't forget the motor driver chip!) and figure out how to get the wheels to move with the online manuals. Then, add a bumper switch and move on from there!

If you feel to afraid to even do that, then you should probobably go with the "have your hand held" route and follow a tutorial or buy a kit. If you do buy a kit, please, for the love of all that is good, do not buy a Lego NXT. They are drastically overpriced and won't teach you nearly as much as others. I enjoyed my experience with VEX hardware, but their microcontroller ($50!) drove me absolutely crazy. You could, of course, get the brand-new ever-so-popular Vivus the Robot kit from the BW Science Labs Store.**



Footnotes:

*: called my brother
**: I really don't want to toot my own horn, but the reason why I'm selling this kit is because I've found its good for beginners.