Page 25 - The Unofficial Guide to Lego Mindstorms Robots

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2
Hank, the Bumper Tank

In this chapter:

• About the Building
Instructions

• Building Instructions

• A Simple Program

• Wheels

• Bumpers and Feelers

• Gears

• Multitasking

• Online Resources

Hank is the first robot we'll be building. He is a friendly robot who explores the floor of a room. Whenever he bumps into an
obstacle, like a chair leg or a shoe, he backs up, turns away from the obstacle, and goes forward again. This chapter includes
complete building and programming instructions so that you can build Hank yourself. Hank is a fairly simple robot that will
serve as a good jumping-off point to discuss:

• Various means of locomotion

• Bumper design

• The use of gears

• Motors

• Software multitasking

Figure 2-1 shows a picture of the completed robot. I suggest you begin by building and programming Hank. Let him run
around your floor for a while. Then come back and read the rest of the chapter, where I'll talk about some of Hank's interesting
features.

About the Building Instructions

The building instructions for the robots in this book are comprised of pictures, with a little bit of explanation here and there.
Each step shows you the parts you need as well as how they fit together. There are, however, some names with which you
should be familiar, so that I don't end up describing everything as a ''doo-hickey" or a "little gray thingy." The parts you need
to know are beams, plates, shafts, gears, bushings, and wire bricks.