SO YOU WANT TO BUILD A ROBOT
BY S.D. KAEHLER
This article is based somewhat loosely upon a presentation given at the regular February 2006 monthly meeting of the Seattle Robotics Society. The presentation slides can be found on the SeattleRobotics Yahoo Group in the “Files” area. You can access it by joining the group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/seattlerobotics). The presentation upon which this article is based and the article itself are intended to get your creative juices stirring and so won’t present a lot of detailed technical data. However, they will present a way to navigate through the overwhelming amount of information available and try to provide a method for determining what makes sense for you.
Introduction
I won’t pretend to be an expert on any of the subjects presented here so please don’t make that assumption about me. In fact, I know relatively little compared to the vast storehouse of knowledge in the heads of so many other SRS members, but I’ve learned a great deal just from being around so many creative and talented people, asking questions, and seeing what they’ve done, etc. I hope you will be inspired by this article not only to build something, but to share what you’ve learned with the rest of us. Together, we can help each other learn more, start, improve upon, or even finish our own projects. I hope you will see gaps in this presentation that you can fill with your own sometime. I would enjoy having SRS members regularly presenting on topics they understand and want to share about. I will touch on many things briefly and lightly. Each could and should be its own presentation. I hope you all will help make this happen.
The following questions served as the outline of the presentation.
Neither the presentation nor this article is a sales pitch for any particular products or methods, so consider the product information in light of your abilities, goals, and finances.
So We Begin…
People outside the SRS really don’t understand the challenges of building autonomous machines. They don’t realize that how well we humans can adapt to environments, situations, and problems is one inspiration for trying to emulate this in the machines we attempt to make. Our robots typically cannot simply be turned loose in the great wide world. They are vulnerable, have limited ability to learn and adapt, and must be fed regularly. They are rather like human infants, often requiring as much attention and protection. But this doesn’t stop us from trying, dreaming, scheming, experimenting, learning, and growing in this ambitious hobby. Let’s start with the first question.
Why do I want to do this?
Many people get into this hobby as an educational experience. This is a great reason because you will learn a lot. You’ll learn about electronics, mechanics, programming, construction techniques, materials properties, artificial intelligence, logic algorithms, and a ton of other things. You will probably learn more about what you don’t know than what you do know because many disciplines come together in a robot and the more you learn, the less you’ll realize that you know. So as an educational exercise, robotics is hard to beat.
Some people want a hobby that’s fun and enjoyable. Building a robot certainly offers this and is a creative outlet for people looking for that “really interesting” technical challenge. I won’t lie to you though. Building a robot isn’t easy, but it is very rewarding and gives you a great sense of accomplishment.
Maybe you have tons of money and nothing to do with it. I wish I had this problem, but I’m not Bill Gates or Paul Allen. I can promise you that your robot will consume as much money as you feed it, so bear this in mind as you embark down the various possible paths I’ll be outlining.
Some people are competitive and build robots for contests, maybe hoping to win some money or prizes. This is a fun, sometimes grueling path, but a worthwhile effort. Perhaps the incentive of an attractive prize will provide the motivation you need. Maybe you have talked about doing this but have never quite gotten that final push, but then someone challenges you to do it. Or maybe we’re all just a little crazy….Whatever your reasons, you’ve taken the first step on an interesting journey, now let’s look at some other steps.
یا مقلب القلوب و الابصار 
یا مدبر الیل و النهار
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(برای رسیدن به آرزوهاتون لابه لای داشتن و نداشتن امکاناتتون دست و پا نزنید اراده کنید موفقیت در ذهن شماست رویا است شما از آن واقعیت بسازید ایمان داشته باشید و از فکرتون به جای پولتون استفاده کنید البته به جای فکر به شما پیتزا نمیدن ولی قدرت واقعی رو حتما .)
