Engineering

The Robotics Primer

The Robotics Primer offers a broadly accessible introduction to robotics for students at pre-university and university levels, robot hobbyists, and anyone interested in this burgeoning field. The text takes the reader from the most basic concepts (including perception and movement) to the most novel and sophisticated applications and topics (humanoids, shape-shifting robots, space robotics), with an emphasis on what it takes to create autonomous intelligent robot behavior. The core concepts of robotics are carried through from fundamental definitions to more complex explanations, all presented in an engaging, conversational style that will appeal to readers of different backgrounds.
The Robotics Primer covers such topics as the definition of robotics, the history of robotics (“Where do Robots Come From?”), robot components, locomotion, manipulation, sensors, control, control architectures, representation, behavior (“Making Your Robot Behave”), navigation, group robotics, learning, and the future of robotics (and its ethical implications). To encourage further engagement, experimentation, and course and lesson design, The Robotics Primer is accompanied by a free robot programming exercise workbook.
The Robotics Primer is unique as a principled, pedagogical treatment of the topic that is accessible to a broad audience; the only prerequisites are curiosity and attention. It can be used effectively in an educational setting or more informally for self-instruction. The Robotics Primer is a springboard for readers of all backgrounds—including students taking robotics as an elective outside the major, graduate students preparing to specialize in robotics, and K-12 teachers who bring robotics into their classrooms.

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: The MIT Press (September 30, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 026263354X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0262633543

Making Things Move DIY Mechanisms for Inventors, Hobbyists, and Artists

A unique guide to practical mechanical design principles and their applications. In Making Things Move, you’ll learn how to build moving mechanisms through non-technical explanations, examples, and do-it-yourself projects–from art installations to toys to labor-saving devices. The projects include a drawing machine, a mini wind turbine, a mousetrap powered car, and more, but the applications of the examples are limited only by your imagination. A breadth of topics is covered ranging from how to attach couplers and shafts to a motor, to converting between rotary and linear motion.
Each chapter features photographs, drawings, and screenshots of the components and systems involved. Emphasis is placed on using off-the-shelf components whenever possible, and most projects also use readily available metals, plastics, wood, and cardboard, as well as accessible fabrication techniques such as laser cutting. Small projects in each chapter are designed to engage you in applying the material in the chapter at hand. Later in the book, more involved projects incorporate material from several chapters.

  • Paperback: 368 pages
  • Publisher: McGraw-Hill/TAB Electronics; 1 edition (November 17, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0071741674
  • ISBN-13: 978-0071741675

The LEGO Technic Idea Book – Wheeled Wonders

The LEGO Technic Idea Book: Wheeled Wondersis a collection of hundreds of ideas for building cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other vehicles. The models are easy to build based on their pictures alone, and colors distinguish each part, showing you how they’re assembled. Each photo illustrates a different principle, concept, or mechanism that will inspire your own original creations..The Technic models in Wheeled Wonders spin or move things, drag race, haul heavy gear, bump off walls, wind up and go, and much more. You’ll discover how to build differential gears, implement steering and suspension, and design clutch and transmission systems to use in your own vehicles. This visual guide, the second in the three-volume LEGO Technic Idea Book series, is the brainchild of master builder Yoshihito Isogawa of Tokyo, Japan. Each title is filled with photos of Isogawa’s unique models, all of which are designed to fire the imaginations of LEGO builders young and old. Imagine. Create. Invent. Now, what will you build?

  • Author: Yoshihito Isogawa
  • Paperback: 144 pages
  • Publisher: No Starch Press (2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1593272782

The LEGO Technic Idea Book – Fantastic Contraptions

The LEGO Technic Idea Book: Fantastic Contraptionsis a collection of hundreds of working examples of simple yet fascinating Technic models that you can build based on their pictures alone. Colors distinguish each part, showing you how the models are assembled. Each photo illustrates a different principle, concept, or mechanism that will inspire your own original creations. The Technic models in Fantastic Contraptions include working catapults, crawling spiders, and bipedal walkers, as well as gadgets powered by fans, propellers, springs, magnets, and vibration. You’ll even learn how to add lights, pneumatics, and solar panels to your own models. This visual guide, the third in the three-volume LEGO Technic Idea Bookseries, is the brainchild of master builder Yoshihito Isogawa of Tokyo, Japan. Each title is filled with photos of Isogawa’s unique models, all of which are designed to fire the imaginations of LEGO builders young and old. Imagine. Create. Invent. Now, what will you build?

  • Author: Yoshihito Isogawa
  • Paperback: 176 pages
  • Publisher: No Starch Press (2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1593272790

The LEGO Technic Idea Book – Simple machines

The LEGO Technic Idea Book: Simple Machinesis a collection of hundreds of working examples of simple yet fascinating Technic models that you can build based on their pictures alone. Colors distinguish each part, showing you how the models are assembled. Each photo illustrates a different principle, concept, or mechanism that will inspire your own original creations.The Technic models in Simple Machines demonstrate basic configurations of gears, shafts, pulleys, turntables, connectors, and the like. You’ll learn how to create small, elegant machines like cranes, operable doors, motorized cars, a rubber band-powered rocket launcher, a hand-cranked drag racer, and even musical instruments.This visual guide, the first in the three-volume LEGO Technic Idea Bookseries, is the brainchild of master builder Yoshihito Isogawa of Tokyo, Japan. Each title is filled with photos of Isogawa’s unique models, all of which are designed to fire the imaginations of LEGO builders young and old. Imagine. Create. Invent. Now, what will you build?

  • Author: Yoshihito Isogawa
  • Paperback: 168 pages
  • Publisher: No Starch Press (2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1593272774