help in robotics!!!?

Question

i am a high school sophomore. we have this research class and... long story made short, i'm part of a team, and we want to build a robot for our investigatory project out of old gadgetry.
the problem? none of us are familiar with electonics and programming. it's kinda dumb of us and yeah, well, some people would call us stupid, but the teacher's so excited and so are my groupmates so i'm not making a comment. but can anyone tell me if there is a book or a web site that can help us?
thanks!!

Answer 1

If you are in school, I assume your teachers and peers don't expect you to have complex knowledge of Electronics, Mechanical systems, Power Electronics and Control systems and when putting them all together, it will be one frightening nightmare. So, I suggest that you buy a Robotic Kit and assemble that kit - the amazing work you could show to the teachers is little bit of programming through computer and excellent project report. John Craig's book is like Bible of Robotics for beginners. There are many robotic kits available online, but I will suggest Lynxmotion kits - they have plenty of good kits like arms, tripods, hexapods and crawlers.

Books:
John Craig - Introduction to Robotics

Websites for Kits:
http://www.lynxmotion.com

http://www.electronickits.com/robot/robot.htm

http://www.milinst.com/robotics/robotics.htm

http://www.hobbytron.com/RobotKits.html

http://www.apogeekits.com/robot_kits.htm

http://www.hobbytron.com/RobotArmKits.html

Answer 2

I don't have a specific book to help you, but I do suggest you try using pneumatics (compressed air) instead of electronics for your robot's movements. You can use air cylinders for the movements in place of servos and motors. The robot would them be power by an air compressor. The trick then becomes developing either a manual or programmable control system to move it. This can be done with manual switches if you just want to move the robot around. I suggest checking a pneumatics site such as clippard. You can get a catalog from them www.clippard.com. Suggest this approach to your teacher. I suggest using a valve manifold card such as an EMC-8 or EMC-12 to manually control your cylinders.

Answer 3

http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-msgr&p=robot%20projects
Have fun find one that suits you! (And no, it's not a stupid idea -- I wish I had done more like this in high school. You learn a lot that you just don't learn in the classroom.)

Answer 4

i would be willing to help you, and you don't have to buy parts from me. I just like projects. contact me through my store contact page and I'll get it in the next couple of days.