Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

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There's never been a better time to explore the world of the nearly human. With the complete directions supplied by popular electronics author John Iovine, you can:

* Build your first walking, talking, sensing, thinking robot
* Create 12 working robotic projects, using the fully illustrated instructions provided
* Get the best available introduction to robotics, motion control, sensors, and neural intelligence
* Put together basic modules to build sophisticated 'bots of your own design
* Construct a robotic arm that responds to your spoken commands
* Build a realistic, functional robotic hand
* Apply sensors to detect bumps, walls, inclines , and roads
* Give your robot expertise and neural intelligence

You geteverything you need to create 12 exciting robotic projects using off-the-shelf products and workshop-built devices, including a complete parts list. Also ideal for anyone interested in electronic and motion control, this cult classic gives you the building blocks you need to go practically anywhere in robotics.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction (p. xvii)
• Acknowledgments (p. xix)
• 1 In the beginning (p. 1)
• Why build robots? (p. 2)
• Purpose of robots (p. 2)
• Exploration (p. 3)
• Industrial robots--going to work (p. 7)
• Design and prototyping (p. 7)
• Hazardous duty (p. 8)
• Maintenance (p. 8)
• Fire-fighting robots (p. 9)
• Medical robots (p. 9)
• Nanotechnology (p. 10)
• War robots (p. 11)
• Robot wars (p. 11)
• Civilian uses for robotic drones (p. 12)
• Domestic (p. 12)
• What we haven't thought of yet--the killer application (p. 12)
• More uses (p. 13)
• 2 Artificial life and artificial intelligence (p. 15)
• Artificial intelligence (p. 15)
• Evolution of consciousness in artificial intelligence (p. 16)
• Is consciousness life? (p. 17)
• Artificial life (p. 17)
• Nanorobotics--are we alive yet? (p. 18)
• A little history (p. 18)
• Greater than I (p. 19)
• The locked cage (p. 19)
• Biotechnology (p. 20)
• Neural networks--hype versus reality (p. 20)
• What are neural networks? (p. 20)
• What is artificial intelligence? (p. 21)
• Using neural networks in robots (p. 22)
• Tiny nets (p. 22)
• Neural-behavior-based architecture (p. 22)
• 3 Power (p. 23)
• Photovoltaic cells (p. 23)
• Building a solar engine (p. 24)
• Batteries (p. 28)
• Battery power (p. 28)
• Battery voltage (p. 29)
• Primary batteries (p. 29)
• Secondary batteries (p. 30)
• In general (p. 33)
• Building a NiCd battery charger (p. 33)
• Building a solar-powered battery charger (p. 38)
• Fuel cells--batteries with a fuel tank (p. 38)
• If not now, when? (p. 39)
• 4 Movement and drive systems (p. 41)
• Air muscles (p. 41)
• Applications (p. 41)
• How air muscles work (p. 42)
• Nitinol wire (p. 43)
• Solenoids (p. 45)
• Rotary solenoids (p. 46)
• Stepper motors (p. 47)
• Stepper motor circuit (p. 48)
• Servo motors (p. 48)
• DC motors (p. 54)
• DC motor H-bridge (p. 55)
• Pulse-width modulation (p. 57)
• 5 Sensors (p. 59)
• Signal conditioning (p. 60)
• Comparator example (p. 60)
• Voltage divider (p. 61)
• Light sensors (sight) (p. 64)
• Photoresistive (p. 64)
• Photoresistive light switch (p. 64)
• Photoresistive neuron (p. 66)
• Photovoltaic (p. 67)
• Infrared (p. 67)
• DTMF IR communication/remote control system (p. 70)
• DTMF (p. 70)
• Machine vision (p. 80)
• Body sense (p. 81)
• Direction--magnetic fields (p. 82)
• Testing and calibration (p. 83)
• Computer interface (p. 83)
• 1525 electronic analog compass (p. 84)
• GPS (p. 85)
• Speech recognition (p. 85)
• Sound and ultrasonics (p. 86)
• Ultrasonic receiver section (p. 87)
• Ultrasonic transmitter section (p. 88)
• Arranging the ultrasonic sensors (p. 90)
• Touch and pressure (p. 90)
• Piezoelectric material (p. 91)
• Switches (p. 92)
• Bend sensors (p. 92)
• Heat (p. 93)
• Pressure sensor (p. 94)
• Smell (p. 94)
• Humidity (p. 97)
• Testing sensors (p. 97)
• Building a tester robot (p. 97)
• Improving the tester robot (p. 99)
• 6 Intelligence (p. 101)
• Microchip's PIC microcontroller (p. 101)
• Why use a microcontroller? (p. 102)
• PIC programming overview (p. 102)
• Software installation (p. 105)
• Step 1 Writing the BASIC language program (p. 105)
• Step 2 Using the compiler (p. 105)
• Step 3 Programming the PIC chip (p. 106)
• First BASIC program (p. 106)
• Programming the PIC chip (p. 110)
• The EPIC programming board software (p. 110)
• Testing the PIC microcontroller (p. 113)
• Wink (p. 114)
• Troubleshooting the circuit (p. 114)
• PICBASIC Pro Compiler (p. 115)
• New IDE features (p. 115)
• Software installation (p. 117)
• First PICBASIC Pro program (p. 117)
• The EPIC programmer and CodeDesigner (p. 118)
• Wink (p. 119)
• Moving forward--applications (p. 120)
• Reading switches--logic low (p. 120)
• Reading switches--logic high (p. 121)
• Reading comparators (p. 123)
• Reading resistive sensors (p. 123)
• Servo motors (p. 126)
• Servo sweep program (p. 127)
• Fuzzy logic and neural sensors (p. 127)
• Fuzzy logic (p. 128)
• Building a fuzzy logic light tracker (p. 130)
• Parts list for programming the microcontroller (p. 139)
• Parts list for fuzzy light tracker and neural demonstration (p. 140)
• 7 Speech-controlled mobile robot (p. 143)
• Project 1 Programmable speech-recognition circuit (p. 144)
• Learning to listen (p. 144)
• Speaker-dependent and speaker-independent speech recognition (p. 145)
• Recognition style (p. 145)
• Building the speech-recognition circuit (p. 146)
• Project 2 Interface circuit (p. 152)
• Walkie-talkies (p. 153)
• Acoustic coupling (p. 153)
• Training and controlling the mobile robot (p. 154)
• New board features (p. 155)
• Project 3 General speech-recognition interfacing circuit (p. 155)
• Connection to speech kit (p. 157)
• How it works (p. 157)
• Creating a more useful output (p. 159)
• Operation (p. 159)
• Improving recognition (p. 160)
• Match environment and equipment (p. 160)
• Speech-controlled robotic arm (p. 162)
• Parts list for speech-recognition circuit (p. 162)
• Parts list for interface circuit (p. 162)
• 8 Behavioral-based robotics, neural networks, nervous nets, and subsumption architecture (p. 165)
• Robotics pioneer (p. 166)
• Fours modes of operation (p. 168)
• Observed behavior (p. 168)
• Building a Walter tortoise (p. 168)
• Program (p. 183)
• Program 1 (p. 184)
• Program 2 (p. 185)
• Behavior (p. 186)
• Parts list for the Walter tortoise robot (p. 188)
• Suppliers (p. 189)
• Building an intelligent photovore robot (p. 189)
• Behavior (p. 191)
• Adding behavior (feeding) (p. 192)
• Still more behavior (resting) (p. 192)
• Emergent behavior (p. 193)
• BEAM robotics (p. 194)
• BEAM competition (p. 194)
• Electronic flotsam (p. 196)
• Competitions (p. 196)
• Getting the BEAM guide (p. 198)
• Join in (p. 199)
• 9 Telepresence robot (p. 201)
• What's in a name? (p. 201)
• What is telepresence? (p. 201)
• System substructure (p. 202)
• A little on R/C models (p. 203)
• Eyes (p. 204)
• Construction (p. 205)
• 2.4-GHz video system (p. 206)
• Driving via telepresence (p. 207)
• Talk (p. 208)
• Adding realistic car controls (p. 208)
• Improving the telepresence system (p. 208)
• Stereo-vision (p. 208)
• Digital compass (p. 210)
• Rumble interface (p. 210)
• Tilt interface (p. 210)
• Greater video range (p. 211)
• More models (p. 212)
• Parts list for the telepresence robot (p. 212)
• 10 Mobile platforms (p. 213)
• Stepper motors (p. 214)
• Stepper motor construction and operation (p. 215)
• Resolution (p. 215)
• Half stepping (p. 215)
• Other types of stepper motors (p. 217)
• Real world (p. 217)
• UCN-5804 (p. 219)
• Using the UCN-5804 (p. 220)
• Connecting a wheel to a stepper motor shaft (p. 222)
• Building a stepper microcontroller (p. 222)
• First stepper circuit (p. 222)
• Stepper motors (p. 223)
• First test circuit and program (p. 224)
• Second PICBASIC program (p. 225)
• Troubleshooting (p. 228)
• Using a PIC microcontroller and a UCN-5804 stepper motor IC (p. 229)
• Parts list for the stepper motor controller (p. 232)
• 11 Walker robots (p. 233)
• Why build walkers? (p. 233)
• Imitation of life (p. 233)
• Six legs--tripod gate (p. 233)
• Creating a walker robot (p. 234)
• Three-servo walker (p. 235)
• Function (p. 236)
• Construction (p. 238)
• Mounting the servo motors (p. 240)
• Linkage (p. 240)
• Center servo motor (p. 241)
• Electronics (p. 243)
• Microcontroller program (p. 244)
• PICBASIC program (p. 245)
• Parts list for the walker robot (p. 246)
• 12 Solar-ball robot (p. 247)
• Gearbox (p. 249)
• Robot construction (p. 250)
• Electronics (p. 253)
• How it works (p. 253)
• Putting it all together (p. 255)
• Locomotion (p. 255)
• Advancing the design (p. 255)
• Adding higher behavior module (p. 256)
• Parts list for the solar-ball robot (p. 256)
• Electronics (p. 257)
• 13 Underwater bots (p. 259)
• Dolphins and tunas (p. 259)
• Swimming with foils (p. 261)
• Paddles and rows (p. 261)
• What have we learned so far? (p. 261)
• Jumping in (p. 262)
• Submarine (p. 262)
• Swimming by use of a tail (p. 263)
• The robotic android fish (p. 267)
• Learn more about it (p. 267)
• Parts list for robotic fish (p. 267)
• 14 Aerobots (p. 269)
• Lighter-than-air aircraft background (p. 270)
• Blimp systems (p. 270)
• The Robot Group--Austin, Texas (p. 271)
• WEB Blimp--University of California, Berkeley (p. 271)
• Designing telepresence blimps as avatars and golems (p. 272)
• To the moon (p. 272)
• Blimp parameters (p. 273)
• The blimp kit (p. 274)
• Helium (p. 274)
• Helium versus hydrogen (p. 274)
• Size (p. 275)
• Construction (p. 276)
• CCD camera (p. 276)
• TV transmitter (p. 276)
• Radio-control system (p. 277)
• Parts list for the blimp (p. 280)
• Internet access (p. 280)
• 15 Robotic arm and IBM PC interface and speech control (p. 281)
• Robotic arm (p. 283)
• Basic motor control (p. 284)
• PC interface construction (p. 286)
• How the interface works (p. 288)
• Connecting the interface to the robotic arm (p. 289)
• Installing the Windows 95 program (p. 289)
• Using the Windows 95 program (p. 290)
• Creating script files (p. 291)
• Animatronics (p. 291)
• Limitations (p. 291)
• Finding home (p. 292)
• Connecting manual control to interface (p. 293)
• DOS-level keyboard program (p. 294)
• Speech control for robotic arm (p. 294)
• Programming the speech-recognition interface (p. 296)
• Parts list for the PC interface (p. 297)
• Parts list for the speech-recognition interface (p. 297)
• 16 Android hand (p. 299)
• Advantages of the air muscle (p. 300)
• Uses (p. 300)
• How the air muscle works (p. 300)
• Components of the air muscle system (p. 301)
• Attaching the air muscle to mechanical devices (p. 304)
• Using the air pump adaptor (p. 304)
• Have a Coke or Pepsi (p. 305)
• Building the first demo device (p. 307)
• Building the second mechanical device (p. 310)
• IBM interface (p. 311)
• BASIC program (p. 312)
• More air (p. 313)
• Safety first (p. 314)
• Android hand (p. 314)
• The thumb (p. 319)
• Going further (p. 321)
• Parts list for the air muscle (p. 321)
• Parts list for the IBM interface (p. 322)
• Suppliers (p. 323)
• Index (p. 325)

Author notes provided by Syndetics