78 SERVO 12.2014
a mobile robot.
Needing a small board-level
computer for a robot project, I bought
a John Bell Engineering ‘computer’
board (Figure 5) back in the early
’80s. Again 6502 based, it ran Tiny
Basic, I believe, and was good to
control a few robot functions. I was
about as inept in programming these
simple computers back then as I still
am these days. Fortunately, there is so
much information available for the
robot experimenter online, as well as
in books, that anyone can learn
programming.
My October column listed a few
of today’s technologies available for
the experimenter. As I have
mentioned many times before, I
would recommend that someone
start out with a simple robot
platform such as the Parallax Activity
Bot or similar base using a Propeller,
Arduino, or other microcontroller,
and polish his/her skills in that way
before tackling a larger robot project.
The Mechanics of
Robot Construction
I’ve just skimmed the surface of
the microcontroller and programming
aspects of amateur robot design as
far more information can be found in
some of my previous articles, as well
as other writer’s articles here in
SERVO. Of course, there are myriad
books available and there’s always
plenty of details on the Internet. So,
I’m going to delve a bit more into the
mechanical skills and
techniques needed.
I have always felt
that the movements
and mobility of a
robot is what makes
robotics so interesting as compared
to just computer science. Yet, it is
supplying additional systems to
convert ‘just’ a computer to a fully
functional robot that is the main
stumbling block to many would-be
robot builders.
I’m going to discuss building a
mobile robot that has wheels, tracks,
or even legs. I won’t go into flying,
waterborne, or underwater robots at
this time.
Basic Hand Tools
are Fine
If you ask a number of hobbyists
just what tools are required for robot
building, every person will give you a
different answer. It’s just the same if
you asked a person who enjoys
rebuilding cars to race them what his
or her tool needs are. Jim Hill’s Charlie
the Robot shown in Figure 6 was
built entirely with hand tools back in
the early ’80s.
Ken Maxon’s Sojourner in
Figure 7 was built in his home
machine shop (shown in Figure 8)
that would be the envy of any
industrial robot shop in the world.
Both of these robots are extreme
examples of homebuilt robots
Figure 5. John Bell Engineering 6502
single-board computer.
Figure 6. Jim Hill and Charlie. Figure 7. Maxon's Sojourner robot.
