track robots

[dutch]

Hi y'all...new to this. looking for information on building a simple crawler radio controlled robot. And, I'm sure I have already violated some language law here already.
I am a retired chief electronics technician from the USCG. and a good mechanical aptitude.
I am looking for something simple to start with and capable of adding to later.
Any help would be appreciated.
TIA,

[hlreed]

Starting out in robotics is hard because most of the information, books, etc. are not able to describe anything but simple machines, leading to a dead end.
Here are some books:
Braitenberg, Valentino, Vehicles, The MIT Press
Reed, Harold L. Brains for Machines, Nova Science Publishers, 1996
Here is the data flow of a robot:
Nature -> Sensors -> Brain -> Motors -> Nature
Sensors look at nature and send data to brain.
Brain digests the data and sends instructions to the motors. The motors act on nature.
The task of the roboticist is to identify or create sensors, brains and motors and arrange them in such a way as to seek a goal.
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[Pittpablo]

dutch,
i would definitely recommend getting the january edition of nuts and volts. it has an article on a tracked vehicle, which is meant to be a 'base' for expanding your projects. you can also find it online at www.kronosrobotics.com . <p>Secondly, a good book might be Robotic Builders Bonanza, the latest edition.

[kerwin]

I recommend using an existing base like a toy bulldozer type thing. I used one i bought at Toys R Us on clearance for $10. It was a tethered remote. I just stripped off the wires and put my own "brain" in. But the mechanicals (gear reduction, motor mount, gear meshing) is already done that way. You can concentrate on jsut driving it. I used an H bridge controller IC (L293D by Phillips or other). Have a look at "http://www.seattlerobotics.org/encoder/ ... otors.html" at the "The DC Motor Interface". Pretty good article on how to drive this. The Seattle Robotics Society has some great links on all kinds of info with a good search engine. <p>I am working on putting up schematics for my toy dozer hack on my site. www.ranchbots.com. i only have a picture there now, but give me a few days. good luck.

[Dean Huster]

And here's a robotics forum:<p>http://www.robot-village.com/cgi-bin/Ul ... tion=intro