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Introduction to building robotsBuilding robots is a complex task. It is fun, but it requires a lot of learning. There is no university course that will teach you everything needed to build a robot, but the good news is that you can master the skills needed on your own. In this guide you can learn the basics, to help you get started.Building a robot has three major phases. You need to build the hardware, which means you have to create plastic and metal parts. Then you need to build the electronics that will collect information from the environment, and will control the robot's motion. The final phase is the software. Building the hardwareThe first phase of building a robot is designing the mechanical parts. This area requires some knowledge of mechanical engineering, but it is not as difficult as it might seem. It all starts with learning to use a 3D design software. The following page lists the most popular design software. We recommend you to use Solidworks or Autodesk Inventor. The best 3D design software for designing robot parts Once you have drawn your robot parts, you need to manufacture them. The three most popular methods to manufacturing parts are: 3D printing which is a great way to make plastic parts CNC milling which is mainly used for making metalic parts Laser cutting which is excellent for plastic/wooren parts made from plexiglass or wood Building the electronic partsThe second phase of building a robot is creating the control circuits. You need to get familiar with basic electronic parts and microcontrollers. It is a very interesting and fun topic, which might seem hard at first, but the learning curve is very enjoyable. The following video tutorials will help you get started. For building electronic circuits we recommend you to use the free KiCad software package. How to design a Printed Circuit Board (PCB):
1. How to design the PCB schematics
2. How to associate the footprints of electronic parts 3. How to design the PCB itself How to manufacture PCB in your office (etching PCB boards using UV):
1. Printing the PCB layers for UV exposure
2. Preparing to do a double sided PCB using UV 3. Using the UV exposure box for PCB etching 4. PCB UV Developing and etching times and procedure Drilling and cutting the PCB board Soldering and testing the PCB board Building the softwareWhen you build a robot software you will perform two different tasks: you will program microcontrollers, and you will write higher level data acquisition and robot control logic. The microcontroller layer is the interface to the hardware. You will collect data from sensors and pass this data to the upper, higher level code, and you will receive instructions from the higher level code and instruct the hardware. In our robots we use Ozeki Matrix electronic modules and Arduinos. Check out the following doucments to get started:
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