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Check out the Robot Store and pay attention to all the cool things like engines, logic modules, and memory wire.

Have fun, make me one too.

Um, yes it did...

Try the following places also, Acroname and Mondotronics Robot Store

David Culp

Coach of the 2004 Oklahoma Regional Botball (http://www.botball.org) Champions (1st and 2nd place teams actually).

You know, when you watch NASCAR or other racing, they frequently have an onboard camera on one or more vehicles. They have some kind of sliding, flexible shield in front of the camera which can scroll out of the way when something gets on it, blocking the view.

Would something like that be too difficult to implement over a large, rectangular solar panel? Alternately, you could try a brush driven by Muscle Wire. They tried an experiment with it on Sojourner, and I understand that it worked. How hard would it be to make a "windshield washer"-type brush which would clean the dust off the PV on a Mars rover? Especially if it increased the lifetime of the rover.

Radio kits just aren't as compelling as they were 30 years ago when I was that age. Today I think robotic kits are particularly compelling, and some even provide a jumping-off point for learning to program.

On a related note, I was also bitten by the LEGO bug as a youngster, and probably spent an order of magnitude more time building with LEGO than I spent building electronics kits. Something to consider...

You can still buy kits for little robotic projects. There's stores all over the internet selling neat little kits.
http://www.robotstore.com has a few.

the photovore robot featured in the article was originally a BEAM kit I think, they're still around but I forget the URL.

as for l33t j03's comment about downloadable source code; this robot doesnt run any code, theres no microprocessor, its just a neat little logic circuit that runs something like:

if light is on my right - then spin left motor
if light is on my left - then spin right motor
if light is in front of me - then spin both

a very neat way of making a little light hunting robot :)

Klowner

There is a metal called Nitinol, which is known as a shape memory alloy, commonly known as "muscle wires" that contract when heated. They are also low resistance conductors, so they will contract when you put current through them (and heat them up). Here's some more information. They call it "Flexinol" though. You can get small actuators, but it has limitations in that these muscles are slow, and can only "pull", they must cool down to go to their extended state, which can take some time. Also, they require a lot of current (at low voltages).

I have seen some work done with pneumatic bladders in a mesh sleeve, when they are inflated, the sleeve causes the pneumatic muscle to contract. It is called a "McKibben Actuator", here's some more information.

This is different/better(?) than the Lego Mindstorms approach because it actually involves connecting up some wires, soldering, all that good stuff.

At least one person who did a Furby Autopsy was not very impressed with the construction of the system.

Some possibly nicer robot kits are available in a number of places, including the Robot Store, Probotics, and Arrick... Of course, there are also the cool Mindstorms, the relatively expensive Aibo (Some hacking info on it can be dug up from the Aibo Site), and the companies listed in this part of the robotics faq

However, Hacking the Furby does give you a relatively inexpensive talking robot with IR input, etc. and ought to be fun... While not the most well constructed system, it does give you some decent features (detects light & sound levels, tilt/inversion of the furby, Infrared and RS232 comms (when upgraded), and some touch sensors on the back, front, and mouth) - especially nice if you get one used, cheap...

It is nice that the reprogrammability kits are being made available, particularly for parents of autistic children (since children can relate to a Furby better than a "regular" hobbyist-grade robot)...

Also, check out the open-source Rossum Project

Decartes has been shipping for a year or two, and robots with similar or greater capabilities have been available commercially for 5 years. Some are programmable in C and have roughly the computing power of an apple ][ or an atari 2600. Try robotstore or arrick.

Under $300:

A Netgear RT314 cable/dsl router
Another 128Mb of High Performance RAM
Hexapod Walker Kit from www.robotstore.com

$300-$500

An IBM 75Gb drive (I know it's slightly more than $500 but that'll change soon enough)
A Voodoo5 6000 video card

Over $500:

A direct connection to the main internet backbone. My own Robosaurus with built in rocket launchers and laser guidance system. My own Air Force 1 and a private island to land it on. Access to top secret computer and military equipment (ie an Apache longbow chopper with heads-up display and GPS navigation system). $100 billion in a bank account, and the deed to the Moon so I can build a moon base to house my giant laser... oh wait.. that was an Austin Powers movie... but the rest would be nice.

If you really want to know how to build autonomous robots, there are several competitions with the same level of excitement as Battlebots et al, but with the added benefit that you can imagine it might eventually be a good thing to turn the resulting machines loose in the real world.

For instance, Robot Sumo is quite popular in Japan and the US. You can find the rules and links to competitions at Sine Robotics. Another big competition is the Trinity College Fire-Fighting Home Robot Contest, wherein robots navigate a known maze (a model house floorplan) to put out a fire (simulated by a lit candle).

Another nice thing about these competitions is they can be cheaper to get into than Battlebots (less heavy iron and welding). And there are lots of good people and organizations who can help you climb the learning curve. Just a few of my favorites are the Seattle Robotics Society, The Robotics Club of Yahoo, Raleigh Triangle Amateur Robotics Group, Portland Area Robotics Society, Robotics Society of Southern CA, and the San Francisco Robotics Society of America.

Finally, here's a few places you can find parts, books, plans, kits, and lots of links: Mondo-Tronics, Acroname, and Robot Books.com.

I'm in high school and I think robotics are cool, I'm actually trying to build one on my own at home. I went out and bought an OOPIC for $50. It's really a neat little thing. Allows you to interface things to it like lights, servos, motors, etc. And then you can write a little program for it in Basic, C, or Java. Just get the kids some of those throw them in teams or two or three, toss them a handful of $10 servos, see who can build the best walking robot, whatever.

I find that a lot more exciting than making stupid "Hello World" programs. :)

Oopic http://www.oopic.com
Servos http://www.towerhobbies.com
also http://www.robotstore.com has nice kits (including mindstorms).

how about muscle wires? they contract when you put a current through them.

check out RobotStore, you can even have the catalog mail to your home free, they have a lot of things, very interesting!
--
BeDevId 15453 - Download BeOS R5 Lite free!

There's lots of affordable robot kits over at robotstore.com, no this isn't an ad I just happen to get their catalog. Or for 25k a day you can rent the 60,000 pound firebreathing car eater Robosaurus.

There's lots of affordable robot kits over at robotstore.com, no this isn't an ad I just happen to get their catalog. Or for 25k a day you can rent the 60,000 pound firebreathing car eater Robosaurus.

In Mondo Tronics' Robot Store catalog 17, page 12 is the cye robot for $695. Although not he same thing as posted, it does pretty much the same thing. The Map-N-Zap software is a pure graphics interface (which they say is a feature), and its shown on Windows 95. As a note, it says you can get an .ocx and program it in visual basic. The model shown in the picture at the website has the wagon attachment on it which can carry up to 9 pounds / 4 kg. There is also an attachment for a vacuum The specs (from the add): 40 x 28 x 13 cm / 16 x 11 x 5 in, weighs 4 kg / 9 pounds High-impact ABS plastic shell, rugged molded wheels Sealed 12 volt, 2.9 amp-hour rechargeable battery FCC approved 900 MHz controller in drive-up recharging station Low center of mass & 3.5 kg / 8 pounds pulling force Central mount for hardware add-ons and RJ-45 port with +12V, +5V, ground & serial lines for add-ons & your own devices. System requirements: Pentium 90 MHz (or better), Windows 95 or Windows 98, CD-ROM drive, Serial port