Robot Book: Build & Control 20 Electric Gizmos, Moving Machines, and Hacked Toys

Robot Book: Build & Control 20 Electric Gizmos, Moving Machines, and Hacked Toys — page 9
tion bots or vibrots don't even need legs making them easy and cheap to build You also need wire to build a robot Keep any wire you find in broken electronics You can also buy a spool of wire at a hobby electronics or hardware store Another good investment is a set of wire strip pers Wire strippers allow you to easily strip the pro tective insulation of wires you are trying to join Wire strippers are available at electronics hardware and dollar stores Switches can help you easily control the electric circuits that power your robots A simple switch breaks the flow of electricity and gives you more con trol over your device Switches are found in many types of toys and most electronics You can also buy switches at electrical supply stores but it is more fun to repurpose old stuff Plus you can save money and help the environment by reusing objects Of course the easiest way to turn a toy on and off is to discon nect the battery Many of the bots in this book can be turned off that way Higher end robots also contain sensors to help them think You can build robots that sense light and dark and robots that sense obstacles and turn Eventually all robotic engineers turn to computer programs to guide their robots I will leave that for you to investigate independently after you've com pleted the beginner projects from this