Robot Building for Beginners by David Cook
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Book Reviews of Robot Building for Beginners
Book Review: Amazing Find for Teaching Kids Electronics and Robotics
Summary: 5 Stars
I have bought other robot building books in the past for my teenage son, yet I quickly got lost in each of them. Not sure how much he retained. Then I found this book. It's wonderful!
A little background: I have a college degree in science- health science. My electronics education is pretty much limited to the Physical Science I took in 9th grade- and I remember my Dad helping me struggle through that! However, I have two sons who are interested in learning robotics. There were no classes or organizations nearby, so we decided to start our own group so the boys could learn with a group of friends. Needless to say, I had to teach it! Over the past year, I've tried several different books/curriculum- including Lego Mindstorms material. I quickly got bogged down in each of these due to my limited background on the subject. I bought this book on a whim as a Christmas present for my oldest son, and was amazed the moment I opened it. After reading each chapter, I truly understand the concepts Mr. Cook is presenting. Our Robotics group decided to use this for our Spring "semester", and we are working through this a few chapters each week. The kids are really learning, and I even have a couple of kids as young as 10y/o who are reading the chapters and enjoying it! We decided to buy the kits that go with the books from Solarbotics to simplify things somewhat due to our group size, but we are loving it! I already have the next book- Intermediate Robot Building- ordered for my son to start when we finish this one.
Book Review: Great Book for the Beginning to Intermediate robot builder
Summary: 5 Stars
I wish I would have had this book when I started out! The author has made a large complex subject very easy to digest with a variety of chapters on each possible subject.As the title implies, this is a book intended for "Beginners". You won't find advanced path-finding algorithms nor will you find advanced distance sensor building. It's about _beginning_ robotics. But that doesn't keep some serious electronics theory from getting put into the book. There is plenty of in depth explanations of transistors, comparators, LEDs and other useful components for the robot builder. I learned several useful "rules of thumb" about choosing resistors that I didn't know before opening this book.
I particularly like the concept of this book being an instruction manual for building a robot. If you are a beginner, you can have a reasonably "intelligent" line following robot built by the end of the book that uses many of the mechanical, electrical and logical concepts introduced in each chapter.
Unlike several other books out there, the author isn't selling you a kit at the end of the book, which I liked. Mr. Cook also gives you the source for each part he uses and its respective part number. This is immensely helpful if you would like to build the robot in the book since you can easily obtain each part needed.
In sum, this book is a great value and a great text for the robotics community! Thank you David Cook!
Book Review: A must-have!
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a terrific book. I read it as it was novel. It is written in such way that you can start from the first and go to the last page without being bored once. It is also beautifully divided so you can use it as a reference book.David Cook did a great job while writing Robot Building for Beginners. It is perfect for an initiation to the robot building. I've read other interesting books but this one has something special: everything is entirely covered for a single project. Other books tend to present a lot of projects but can't seem to concentrate on giving complete information. Robot Building for Beginners does provide all the information you need. Each time I was wondering "well, how about that?", David Cook was answering my question the next paragraph.
There is a great amount of work in "what will a first-timer would be willing to learn after that". If you don't know anything or are willing to refresh your mind on electronics, the book is perfect. David Cook helps us getting to choose the right part, understanding what they do, how to correctly assemble the whole thing and so on. I just finish reading it and I'm ready to build my first robot knowing how to avoid the common pitfalls and how to keep my first project simple, but complete and working.
It's a perfect gift for someone who wants to build his/her first robot. Thanks to David Cook.
Book Review: Excellent book
Summary: 5 Stars
This is an excellent book for a beginner. I'm a software engineer, didn't have any knowledge about robotics prior to this book, and yesterday I finished building my first robot - Kobi (Jacob, which is a rather biblical name but in hebrew also literally means 'will follow'... as it follows lines of course). Took me about 1-1.5 months to read, gather parts and build.
I live in Israel and didn't want to order all the parts from the web (wanted to get it fast), so I bought what I found in the stores, improvised a little bit (just a bit) and built Kobi.
The book takes you through the electronics, including all the parts and tools to use, and the body building (quite a simple body - adjusting a container). Well written, amusing, very readable, lots of pictures to show the reader how things are supposed to be.
This is my first robotics book. I chose it after reading the excellent reviews on it in Amazon, now I'm adding mine. This book greatly enhanced my knowledge (and practice) in robotics, and I already ordered some more robotics books to learn more.
Book Review: Exciting and Clever!
Summary: 5 Stars
The author, David Cook, naturally steps inexperienced readers through the robot building process. A lot of books unsuccessfully assume you already know something about electronics, or expect you to go buy a different book to learn how. Instead, this book alone informs the reader about each step and part necessary, from electronics, to mechanics, to aesthetics, through testing.Another thing I like about the book is that it encourages readers to make their own robot from scratch out of commonly available parts. Unlike the low-quality kits (from which you learn nothing) being hoisted upon budding scientists, the robot presented in this book really becomes the reader's creation.
A practical and useful feature of the book is that each circuit is first shown as a schematic (or wiring diagram) and then a labeled photograph on a solderless breadboard. It makes it simple for me to reproduce the circuit on my board by counting the holes or comparing locations to the photographs in the book.
A terrific book!