Practical Robot Design

Designed for beginners, undergraduate students, and robotics enthusiasts, Practical Robot Design: Game Playing Robots is a comprehensive guide to the theory, design, and construction of game-playing robots. Drawing on years of robot building and teaching experience, the authors demonstrate the key steps of building a robot from beginning to end, with independent examples for extra modules. Each chapter covers basic theory and key topics, including actuators, sensors, robot vision, and control, with examples and case studies from robotic games. Furthermore, the book discusses the application of AI techniques and provides algorithms, and application examples with MATLAB® code.

The book includes:

• Comprehensive coverate on drive motors and drive motor control
• References to vendor websites as necessary
• Digital control techniques, with a focus on implementation
• Techniques for designing and implementing slightly advanced controllers for pole-balancing robots
• Basic artificial intelligence techniques with examples in MATLAB
• Discussion of the vision systems, sensor systems, and controlling of robots

The result of a summer course for students taking up robotic games as their final-year project, the authors hope that this book will empower readers in terms of the necessary background as well as the understanding of how various engineering fields are amalgamated in robotics.