Counting On The Tried And True Schmitt Trigger
by Margaret Toebes
For this year's Science Olympiad competition held in my home state of North Carolina (www.sciencenc.com), my team was challenged to build an electric vehicle that would go a given distance and then stop. Our first car used a 555 timer circuit, but it did not give u s the accuracy we wanted. To be effective in the state competition, we needed a much better way to actually measure the distance the car went. Since we had built the car using the Vex Robotics kit from Innovation First... Page 49

RobotGames 2008 | A World Class Event
by Samuel Coniglio
Every year I go to RoboGames (www.robogames.net), I am impressed with the quality and diversity of the robot events and even more impressed by the people who participate. This is the largest event of its kind on the west coast. Located in San Francisco, CA, this is the perfect place for engineering talent and artistic creativity to merge. Page 56

A Digital RF DataLink

by Fred Eady
Wire is a wonderful thing. There’s not much that is more reliable than a short piece of stranded or solid copper wire between the ends of an electrical connection. However, there are situations where electrically tying devices together with long runs of wire is impractical. Light does a good job of replacing copper when the conditions are right, but if one needs to move electrons reliably over a relatively long distance there’s no better conductor than the Earth’s magnetic field... Page 34

Get A Starter Motor Runnin’ In Your Robot

by Steven Schmitt
Auto starter motors are often overlooked for use in robot building. Typically, a starter motor can draw 50 to 150 amps with no load and over 1,000 amps under heavy load so they may appear to be difficult to use. Since nearly all are series wound (SW), they can be as good as or better than permanent magnet (PM) motors for powering combat robots. Plus, they are inexpensive and readily available. The torque of an SW motor is proportional to the current squared whereas the torque of a PM motor... Page 44

Robytes
by Jeff Eckert
Fecundity Begets Rotundity
If you tip over the average robot, all it can do is thrash around helplessly until someone picks it up. But being round and without external appendages, the Groundbot™ from Rotundus (www.rotundus.se) is always upright. It also can move through mud, snow, and sand without getting stuck, and, being hermetically sealed, is pretty much impervious to environmental threats. It’s also tough enough to survive drops of up to 10 ft (3 m)... Page 08

Ask Mr. Roboto
by Dennis Clark
Ask Mr. Roboto | October 2008
Your Problems Solved Here. Page 13

Robotics Resources
by Gordon McComb
Getting Kids Into Robotics
Robots and kids go together like bacon and eggs, peaches and cream, resistors and capacitors. Thanks to low-cost construction kits — and not to mention popular movies that glamorize automatons — more and more children are exploring the world of robots. Page 73

Then and Now
by Tom Carroll
Robots - From Humanoid To Human Status
I take a lot of technical magazines, more than my postman or wife care to see. Many of them have very interesting viewpoints on technology and robotics. One is Managing Automation — a magazine concerned mostly with implementation of factory automation and robotics. MA has a monthly e-newsletter that covers many automation subjects. The August 1st issue had an interesting article entitled “More Human than Humans” by MA Editor-in-Chief, David R. Brousell... Page 78

Savage - Part 1
in Combat Zone: Features
When building a robot for someone else, I always listen to their design brief, put together a concept, and build to that design. Page 22

Building Battery Packs Fit for Combat
in Combat Zone: Features
In the early days of combat robotics, builders were often forced to assemble their own battery packs if they wanted something robust that would tolerate conditions filled with shock, vibration, heavy G-loads, and constant flexing all while operating at very high temperatures. Page 27

Electronize Speed Controllers
in Combat Zone: Features
When first venturing into combat robot building, I, like most, began with RC car speed controllers. It quickly became apparent that even the most highly rated controllers were not robust enough to handle the power demands of the 30 lb class. Page 31

Size Matters
by Bryan Bergeron in Mind / Iron
When Parallax announced their new 12 VDC motors with mount, wheels, and position controller, I couldn’t resist picking up a kit ($280). Finally, a ‘standard’ drive system designed for medium-sized mobile robots from the company behind the BASIC Stamp and the Boe-Bot... Page 06