How to Build Your Own Working Robot Pet

By Frank DaCosta

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0830697969
• ISBN13: 9780830697960
• Release Date: January 1979
• Publisher: Tab Books
• Weight: 0.83 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Still relevant after 23 years

This book starts with the notion of a robot pet and finishes after having developed a fully working prototype. To be sure the computer technology has dated. *BUT* the exploration of each problem and the thorough discussion of various practical solutions was always intended to enable experimenters to roll their own hardware and software implementations anyway. DaCosta always provides one good solution for each problem. Some info is priceless, particularly soniscan, the object avoidance system; Excom,a way of 'talking' to the robot; and Audigen, providing the pet with a way of communicating with the owner or growling at intruders. The description of the ARASEM (ARtifically RAndom SElf-Motivation) software architecture is a classic. If you are interested in the concept of emulating domestic pet behaviour by building a robot, you will not do any better than this book.

Very good book

I don't remember WHY I decided to buy this book, but I'm glad I did. It's one of my favorite robot books. I learned alot about setting up a microprocessor to read and write to RAM, external addressing, and lots of other cool stuff. The project is just so neat, that I'm considering hunting down an 8085 just so that I can build the little robot pet. It responds to voice commands, randomly does "pet" things, and plays on it's own. How cute. It even hunts down it's own charger, acts hungry if it can't find it... ! If you're interested in real microprocessors (not a basic stamp) get this book. You'll learn alot from it.

A thorough and practical 'how to' construction manual.

I originally purchased this book many years ago to construct the robot it describes. I am presently 'resurecting' the project for my children and have come to appreciate this book more with each reading. DaCosta created a readable and practical 'how to' manual on contructing a very ingenious little robot. Unfortunately, the technology described is no longer cutting edge (the robot uses the now obsolete Intel 8085A microprocessor). However, this book is still a great primer for first time microprocessor users. I don't know if DaCosta ever updated the book, but if he did, and I could find it, I would buy it without hesitation.