Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Building Robots

Chapter 7. Project 1: Coat Hanger Walker

In This Chapter

• Finally, we start building robots!

• The nifty BEAM Bicore circuit

• Breadboarding basics

• Build a robo-critter in your spare time...with junk parts!

Now that we know some of the basic operating principles behind robots, and some of the components that go into them, let’s start putting what we’ve learned into practice. In this chapter, we’ll build a little critter (see Figure 7.1) out of surprisingly simple and minimal parts. We’ll even make use of one of those coat hangers that seem to breed in your bedroom closet. We’ll also continue our Thumbnail Guide series with a look at breadboarding, a handy and easy way of prototyping your electronic circuits before welding all of ...