Robotic Exploration: A Hands‐On Introduction to Engineering is a superbly written reference text. It provides a practical introduction to robotics and design concepts for electrical, mechanical and software systems. This book will inspire and encourage students to learn more about engineering and is suitable as a reference text for experienced engineers. Much of the material in this book is based on the famous MIT “6.270” Lego robotic design competition and the handy board, a small battery‐powered microcontroller board based on the Motorola 68HC11 microprocessor.
Chapter 1 contains an overview of the book and introduces feedback control, cybernetics and robotics. Chapter 2, “A first robot”, discusses interactive C and the handy board, Braitenberg vehicles, light and touch sensitivity, randomness, and emergence and meta‐sensing.
The third chapter of the book presents a variety of sensors and techniques for shaft encoding, while chapter 4 discusses motors, gears and mechanisms. Topics covered in this section include DC and servo motors, gearing, electronic control and Lego design.
Chapter 5 discusses the important topic of control. It addresses simple feedback control, proportional‐derivative control, sequential control and reactive control. The final chapter of the book covers advanced sensing. Techniques presented include quadrature shaft encoding, infrared sensing, ultrasonic distance sensing, optical distance sensing, and sensor data processing.
Seven appendices are included which provide comprehensive information about the handy board design, construction techniques, serial communication and data collection, handy board specifications, interactive C reference, and a list of resources.
