DPRG mailing list archives: DPRG: First robot brain

Fri Feb 21 08:06:40 CST 1997

> Another chance I have for may first robot's brain is a pocket PC, it has
> 540K RAM, 2MB RAM-CARD I, 8088. But I'm not very sure because I don't
> want to break it 'yet'.

Using a pc for a robot brain may be easier since there's much more
software for it and programing tools...  Although, being an 8088, it
may be a little hard these days.

> I'm going to look for old components (floppies, VCR...), Which of them
> are better to provide the motors?

On the floppies, you can take out the stepper motors.  I wouldn't
try to lift a lot of weight with them, but they're nice for aiming
a poloroid sensor in all directions.  I believe the VCRs would only
have DC motors, and most won't be that strong.  They might be nice
for some small robotics project.

> How Can I design the body of the robot?

One thing many are doing are getting an RC car and tapping into
the motors and putting the computer on top.  That's a quick way
into robotics.

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Jim Brown                jbrown at spdmail.spd.dsccc.com or jbrown at why.net
                         http://users.why.net/jbrown  
                         http://www.dprg.org (Next meeting Mar 22nd)

Work:  972-519-2868      My employer won't claim these opinions.    
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