I wanted to start building robots the moment I saw the sci-fi movie classic The Day the Earth Stood Still (the original, mind you, not the remake). My initial attempt, shortly thereafter, was cobbled together from nothing more than random TV parts and scrap wire I had scrounged from my dad's electronics junk box. The machine didn't really do anything—other than get me into trouble. My father informed me that those "random" parts were actually rather pricey RCA picture tubes.

Still, it was my first robot, and your first robot is one you never forget. Watching your creation do something as simple as scoot around the floor is exhilarating, particularly if you've built it from scratch.

Companies such as Lego and Vex offer inexpensive prefab robotics kits aimed at children and educators, but you'll get far more flexibility in the long run by learning to build a true, circuits-to-servos DIY robot. Plus, it has never been cheaper or easier to put one together, and the result of your efforts will greatly exceed what was possible even five years ago. (Trust me, I've been at it for over 20 years.) Best of all, robot building offers something that's increasingly rare in the world of electronics: the opportunity to create a moving, working machine with your bare hands. I've worked with Popular Mechanics to design a robot project that anyone with a bit of technical skill can complete, even if you've never built a bot before. It's affordable, readily expandable, and a great deal of fun.

Defining the Bot

Our double-decker beginner bot uses a miniature computerized brain to move across the floor, mindful of nearby obstacles. If it (gently) hits something or someone, the robot emits an apologetic tune, backs up, and sets off in a new direction. In terms of basic behavior, it's a bit like a Roomba self-driving vacuum cleaner. To DIY roboticists, this style of machine is known as a roving bot.

We've also designed the robot to work with almost any universal remote control, so you can manually command your robot to stop, start, and turn. We've tried to keep it to a reasonable ambition level: It should take 2 hours or less to construct, and it doesn't require special tools. There's no circuit assembly, and only basic soldering is needed.

At the heart of our bot is a $30 Arduino microcontroller board that's small enough to be powered by a 9-volt battery. This microcontroller serves as a small programmable computer that connects software to actual, real-world functions. Programs, or sketches (in Arduino-speak), tell the microcontroller what to do. You use a personal computer to create sketches, then those sketches are uploaded via USB cable to the internal memory of the microcontroller. Sketches can do things like run motors or monitor the state of switches and sensors.

We chose the Arduino microcontroller because it is designed specifically for DIY projects like ours, and because it's open-source, meaning that its hardware and software designs are open for modification and free of licensing fees. Since it lowers the entry barrier to robotics in virtually every sense, from cost to difficulty, the Arduino is becoming something of a superstar in the world of bot builders.

Software for programming the microcontroller is free to download from the official Arduino site and is relatively easy to use, because it was designed not just with programmers in mind. It runs on both PCs and Macs and includes intuitive tools that allow bot-builders to download and install ready-made programs. The vibrant community of Arduino users has even designed super-simple, graphical-software-design apps, such as Modkit and Minibloq. These ease the learning curve not just for Arduino, but for basic programming in general.

The Arduino gets wired to your robot's hardware through a breadboard. Also known as a plugboard, this device routes electronic signals from one part of the robot to another. Breadboards make it easy to wire everything quickly and recon-figure your connections on the fly without hard-soldering everything together. It's a sort of switchboard for your robot's servos, sensors, switches, and processor. If the Arduino is the bot's brain, this is its nervous system.

Our bot uses two gear motors for propulsion, with a free-rotating caster out front. These motors are specialized versions of radio-control servos typically used for model airplanes. Instead of rotating just a few degrees, they keep turning. This type of motor—the continuous-rotation servo—is both low-cost and easily screw-mountable. The servos live on the bottom of two decks, which are separated by risers. The twin-deck design leaves ample room for mounting electronics. Now let's get started.





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Beginning the Build

You can construct the body of the BYFR using a 9" by 12" piece of 1/4" aircraft grade plywood or sheet plastic. A motorized scroll saw will make the work go faster. I prefer expanded rigid PVC sheet. It's easy to cut and drill, and comes in bright colors. Find it online, or try a local sign maker shop.

For the complete parts list, and instructions, plus FAQ, templates, sketches, and extra goodies, go here. Then click the link below to head to our step-by-step walkthrough of the build.





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