Bot

This is a great bot. I recommend it for everyone. Easy to put together and lots of fun.

A great, fun, and easy bot to build. Good customer service.

I would recommend it for everyone.

I have had the original build your own robot kit for a year now and I thought it was pretty good. The concept and price was great, but there were a few rough edges in the original execution. The original wheels [were poor] (and for some reason say "FORD" on them) and it got pretty expensive buying the BS2 to go with it. Using an "acorn nut" as a front "caster" was pretty innovative, unfortunately it didn't work that well on rough surfaces.

The good points about the robot were the remote control and how easily a BS2 could be added to the robot so that I could write my own programs and try them out. Even with the [poor] wheels and "caster" it was probably the best experimenter's robot out there. The information on the CD-ROM was great, although I wish it was available on paper (costs a lot to print out all the information).

Myke seemed to have learned from the first robot and the Sumo Bot is fantastic. It now has a very solid sheet metal chassis (with a front scoop), it runs by 4 "AA" batteries and has a caterpiller bulldozer like track that allows it to run over just about any surface. The robot is really built like a bulldozer, it will last a long time.

Best of all, the optional pieces from the original kit, the BS2 and AppMod are built into the robot. All you have to do is put the CD-ROM into your PC, download the programs and BS2 programming software, conenct the robot to the PC using a serial cable and you can start writing your own programs or adding your own hardware.

This review probably reads like a sales pitch, but I've had my Sumo Bot for a week now and I LOVE IT! It's very robust, easy to use and program and best of all, it's fun.

Brad

This book is one of the best I have bought so far. Those of you just getting started on building robot will be especially pleased about the countless tips on the correct way to use tools and construction techniques etc. The huge number of illustrations is a welcomed bonus.

The section on choosing a Remote Control is very informative.

If you are hoping for sections on electronics, programming or building your own parts for the electrical/electronic components you will be very dissapointed as all the parts used are off the shelf.

You might want to supplement this book with Amphibionics and Insectronics by Karl Williams which has good sections of programming and electronics.

No book is perfect but if you want to build a REAL fighting robot this is the best book around and I'm saying this after having bought most of the popular ones around.

I knew of the author from watching BattleBots on TV (he built Deadblow http://www.battlebots.com/battlebots_detail.asp?ID=60) so I pre-ordered this before it even came out.

The thing that sets this one apart from some of the other books is the illustrations - they are absolutely beautiful, and really add to the clarity and readability of the book, although I wish they were in color.

Regardless, this is a brilliant book on robotics. I imagine this is a great place to start if you are just getting into robots, and if you are like me and know some basics after building a few kits, this is a great guide to doing it all from scratch. It provides a great deal of detail, and I'll bet that even veterans are sure to pick up a few tricks here and there.

Just getting started with robots, and this is my first book on building them. I chose this one because I eventually want to build a battlebot, although I plan to just start with a basic bot.

So far this is exactly what I wanted. It is very easy to understand, the directions are clear and easy to follow, and the drawings are absolutely killer.

Very well done, and highly recommended.

"The Bot Story" is both fun and profound. This is science fiction on the order of H.G. Wells or George Orwell, addressing themes with timelesss and elegant style, unique in all the literature of which I am aware. This is a must read!

This book is a must read for those new to the sport and who are interested in R/C robot combat tournaments. It primarily focuses on the basics of robot construction, from locomotion to weapon systems to robot fighting styles. Basic robot physics, tactics and acquiring sponsorship are covered as well. It also presents the issues involved with putting on your own tournament. There are helpful tips from a large assortment of knowledgeable people including top builders, vendors, tournament organizers and more. If you are new to the sport, it is an indispensable source of helpful information. Many 'newbie' mistakes can be avoided with the experience gained from the book. If you have already had lots of robot combat exposure you should recognize most of the material as fundamental, yet it can still be an interesting and informative read.

Foreign Language Research in Cross-Cultural Perspectiv

I-Bots was a fun book to read. It stayed within the boundaries of the Asimov universe. It was an exceptionally action oriented book which sets it apart from other books in the Asimov universe. I found it to be a quick and enjoyable read. I liked it so much, I read it in one night. The book has well developed characters. The plot was well thought out with many exciting twists and turns.

This book is very well done. The photos are phenomenal, the mechanical diagrams are very consice and exact and the subject matter is explained very well. The only reason I give it a 3-star rating is because all of the material is available on the internet for free - although I do like having the book on my shelf. I don't agree that the simple beam technolgy will stand the test of time because what they call a "nervous network" is actual just a simple analog sequence generator and cannot be programmed to allow the robot to do practical work. If you want to have some control over what your robot is going to do, then you need to get a book that explains the use of microcontrollers. Try a book by Myke Predko. Definitely buy this book though!!

As a graphic designer by trade, I dabble in building robots. The BEAM philosophy for building robots is really quite amazing because the focus is on reuse of discarded electronics while striving to make your robots look as asthetically pleasing as possible. The strength of this work is that now everybody may build a robot easily and quickly.

Great book for beginners in robotics OR electronics. This book focuses on the minimalist BEAM approach to robotics, as opposed to the full blown combat robots you see on TV. Starts with the real basics, everything from reading resistor color bands (BBROYGBVGW - Bad Boys etc...) to proper soldering techniques. Then it moves on to a series of step-by-step micro-bot builds, generously illustrated with photos and diagrams. If you can't find the parts around the house to build your bots, you can always take the author's dumpster diving tips to heart. I'd recommend this book for anybody who's not afraid of soldering and glue fumes.

it's really great. i'm in 3rd grade, and it took me 30 mins to read dis. so read it at da shop.its kinda hard to follow the battle scenes, but that's OK...............................

the codes to add voice reco to my chatbots are the best ! this book also did a great job in presenting the tools to create chatbots fast. I got 3 girl bots running on aol within a few hours. Monica's ideas for how to use chatbots have me thinking of hundreds of possibilities for more work.

..... I sincerely wanted him to succeed and went out of my way to help him selflessly.

....

I got my first chatbot online within 2 days. this book is pretty short but gives the information I needed to have my own chatbots online fast which impressed the boss. The author was very helpful too when I contacted her for fast coding help.

As I proceeded through this book, I found myself doing more skimming than reading. It might be useful to you if you don't have a clue about network programming or internet protocols, to get your feet wet using WinInit and the supplied classes, but if you're looking for nuts and bolts information about protocols, THIS BOOK IS NOT THE ONE YOU'RE LOOKING FOR. The projects in this book rely on WinInit and MSIE to perform the magic, and you won't learn much about the underlying protocols. I was also disappointed to see typos and errors in virtually every example in the book; bad news if you actually read the code to try to understand how things work.

I found this book to be extremely useful and insightful into a topic that I had previously only been briefly exposed to. I personally don't care about the details of some of the underlying protocols put to use, and just enjoy the fact that it was written for those of us who are using Visual C++ 6.0! The book is very clear and easy to understand. Many thanks goes out to the author for all his time and effort spent into creating a book like this!

Easy to read and informative. The jewel in this book is the source code for the objects that are ready to use right out of the box. If you need to put together an application that mines information from the internet really quickly, this is the book. This book is about retrieving and parsing http, (port 80) only.