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

by Bobby Mercer

How to use reuse and recycle components and supplies to build a variety of devices

 

The 20 easy-to-build robots in this project book can be constructed for little or no cost using common household objects and repurposed materials. From learning how to turn a toothbrush, an old cell phone or pager, and scrap wire into a Brush Bot, or how to hack a toy car to hotwire a Not-So-Remote Bot, each hands-on project contains a materials list and detailed step-by-step instructions with photos. Explanations of the science and technology behind each robot—including concepts such as friction, weight and mass, center of gravity, kinetic and potential energy, electric circuitry, DC vs. AC current, and more—are also included.

Genres: Nonfiction

210 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh....not what I was looking for. This is mostly hacked toys which might be great if you have a bunch of junk lying around or your playing by yourself. Not great for teaching more than one kid because it uses recycled stuff and what are the chances you'll be able to reproduce the same results for all the kids???
Also who just happens to have an old pager lying around?!

Black and white photos are not great either.

[Karla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not bad but no color and very wordy for the intended age group
Not really a recommended purchase

[Kate · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a kid who's looking to build these little toys on his or her own, this is a great resource, but I requested it to try getting ideas for a library program and was pretty disappointed. If one of my school-aged patrons wants to take apart a circuit board on his or her own time, that is great, but it's not something I can really do in my library. The battle bots made out of old pull-back race cars were about the only thing I feel I could do in an hour with a mixed group of kids of different ages. Even when I think about kids using this book on their own, I have my reservations: a few of the robots require absurdly specific materials, like an M&M Minis package with a motorized fan on top, and none of the book's pictures are in color. I didn't mind this, but kids will.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some good ideas but not quite right for my needs, to make group projects.