Product Description
This book features great droids, indeed! This unique guide to sophisticated robotics projects brings humanoid robot construction home to the hobbyist. Written by a well-known figure in the robotics community, "Build Your Own Humanoid Robots" provides step-by-step directions for 6 exciting projects, each costing less than $300. Together, they form the essential ingredients for making your own humanoid robot. If you are serious enough to interest robot professionals, the plans inside offer serious fun to hobbyists. They give you the power to breathe life into a mechanical being with amazingly human qualities, and feature all the instructions you need for programming the inexpensive chips that give your humanoid brains and sensitivity.It features 6 astounding projects: Robotic Arm, Wrist, and Hand - build a versatile robotic arm system to give your humanoid the ability to manipulate objects/ A PIC microcontroller provides motor control and feedback; Personal Computer Interface - learn how to interface the robot arm or any other robotics project to a personal computer for complete control and feedback; Visual Basic Control Software - develop flexible bidirectional communications software to control the robot arm or other projects from your personal computer; Voice Recognition Control - make your robotic arm and walking robot obey your spoken commands with this completely embedded control system that can also be used for many other applications; Expressive, Speaking Face - enable your robot to show happiness, surprise, excitement, anger, and more, as it speaks any words you transmit electronically; and, Bipedal Walking Robot - it's your own amazing small scale, fully autonomous robot! Learn about sensors, analog-to-digital converters, DC motor control, microcontrollers, feedback, and control systems. Also included is the background information regarding construction materials, test equipment, printed circuit board fabrication, microcontrollers, and programming and design considerations needed to create the humanoid robot projects.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 10 reviews)

Another disappointment... :( by Wayne Cothran (White, Georgia United States)

1 Stars
May 14, 2008
The way this book is put togther is what leaves me feeling a bit ripped off. I feel the author and/or publisher owe me some money! At least one third of the book was copied over from manufacturer's free publications. If you want to read a list of available programming instructions contained within the language written about in the book just vist the mfg web site and save your money. And, Hex listings in the book! Give me a break! You can read what this book has to offer in under an hour! This book stinks...

Detailed and inspirational - worth the read! by Denard D. Springle IV (Fairfax, VA USA)

5 Stars
June 27, 2006
Karl does a good job of leading you through the basic concepts of humaniod robotics in this well written, well annotated and very descriptive text on the subject. His detailed plans are easy to follow and his programs are well written and well explained throughout. He provides specific recommendations for parts as well as vendors and spends time explaining his choices. If you're interested in learning not only how to write useful PIC applications for robotics but also how to build robotics that implement those applications, then this is the book for you. This is a must have for your library of robotics books!

An amazing book for robotic beginners. by Rudy Gazali

4 Stars
March 18, 2006
The most interesting part of this book is on its pratical topics. A lots of briliant ideas can be learned from this book, especially for those who would like to build up their first robotic project from scratch. Things that need to be improved are on the materials used for the projects in this book. Less heavy duty tools required would be nice. The discussions should be more focussing on robotic sensors and control parts. Great Collection!!!

Laredo TX Samuel Diaz by Jose M. Diaz (Laredo TX)

5 Stars
February 08, 2006
I already did all the projects in the book it great its one of the best robot books I have ever readed it tells you everything you need to now about robotics.

Robot Start to Finish by Mathmatics

5 Stars
September 30, 2005
First off I'd like to say that this is a great book if you want to learn how to build a robot from start to finish. I personally waited till I was done building the robotic arm to write this review. The book was easy to read, and understand, and took me through the process with ease. It lists everything you need, and even tells you where some parts can be ordered, although I wish it could of listed more specs, and suppliers. I'm not sure if I would recommend this book to the clueless begginer because there were a couple of technical erros I found, but worked through. One of the errors was in the PCB artwork which caused an LED not to light in the test program. The book also says you can build it for under $300. I think I spent about $500. That's not including the pic programmer, software, Visual Basic, and tools. Which even though most of that isn't needed, you wouldn't really be learning much if you didn't have it. If you at least have the tools, I would say that with the software, and everything else that you should have for the project, it would cost in the neighborhood of $1,300. On the plus side you'll be able to build your next project for under $300 once you have the proper materials. Nobody said it would be cheap, so make sure you're serious. I'm already designing my own project with the knowledge I gained from building the arm.

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