Page 34 - Robot Builder's Bonanza

Chapter 1

Welcome to the

Wonderful World

of Robotics!

here he sits, as he’s done countless long nights before, alone and deserted in a dank and
Tmusty basement. With each strike of his ball- peen hammer comes an ear- shattering bong
and an echo that seems to ring forever. Slowly, his creation takes shape and form— it started
as an unrecognizable blob of metal and plastic, soon it was transformed into an eerie silhou-
ette, then . . .
Brilliant and talented, but perhaps a bit crazed, he is before his time: a social outcast, a
misfit who belongs neither to science nor to fiction. He is the robot experimenter, and all he
wants to do is make a mechanical creature that serves drinks at parties and wakes him up in
the morning.
Okay, maybe this is a dark view of the present- day amateur robotics experimenter. Though
you may find a dash of the melodramatic in it, the picture isn’t unrealistic. It’s a view held by
many outsiders to the robot- building craft— a view more than 100 years old, from the time
when the prospects of building a human- like machine first came within technology’s grasp.
Like it or not, if you want to build robots, you’re an oddball, an egghead, and— yes, let’s
get it all out— a little on the weird side!
As a robot experimenter, you’re not unlike Victor Frankenstein, the old- world doctor from
Mary Shelley’s immortal 1818 horror thriller. Instead of robbing graves in the still of night,
you “rob” electronics stores, flea markets, and surplus outlets in your unrelenting quest— your
thirst— for all kinds and sizes of motors, batteries, gears, wires, switches, and other gizmos.
Like Dr. Frankenstein, you galvanize life from these “dead” parts.

What the Adventure Holds

Just starting out building your first robot? You’re in for a wonderful ride! Watching your cre-
ation do something as simple as scoot around the floor or table can be exhilarating. Those

3

01-chapter-1.indd 3 4/21/11 11:42 AM