Programming Robot Controllers [With CDROM]

by Myke Predko

Book Overview

Covers designing the robot system, software development, and advanced programming This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071408517
• ISBN13: 9780071408516
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Tab Books
• Length: 456 Pages
• Weight: 1.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

OK guys, let's get some perspective here.

Myke Predko is one of my favorite authors. There are a lot of beginners baffled and confused with the information presented, because his books are not written for the inexperienced, although beginners will benefit greatly from the information presented. He will take complex subject matter and condense it down into a few pages. He will simplify complex topics in such a way that it will save you hundreds of hours of time searching through large numbers of other books trying to get a grasp on complex subject matter normally covered through many pages and many chapters of Engineering text. His writing is a short cut to success. He has made my career possible, during difficult times, when jobs were in short supply. His knowledge in part has become my knowledge, and it has provided for me valuable career opportunities that I otherwise would not have had. I will be forever grateful for all the shared wealth of information provided in his books. Most people with this kind of guru knowledge are not willing to share there secrets with the rest of us. Myke Predko shares freely his vast amount of practical knowledge and experience, through his books, which are very reasonably priced, much lower than you would normally expect to pay for a college textbook, and his books are at least 10 to 100 times more valuable.

On my SEcond Copy

The first two books in the "Robot DNA" series are rehashes of well worn subjects but Predko's book is a really good treatment on a subject that hasn't been looked at before in any kind of depth: how the robot controller itself is programmed and interfaced with sensors and motors. After working through the book, you will be able to design code that will work with (and integrate!) light sensors, mechanical whiskers, IR object sensors, RC servos, DC motors and more. Each interface is very well explained and Predko goes into depth into integrating multiple functions together (even going so far as showing how to make some simple robots for testing out ideas). Being a hobbyist, what I really appreciated was how Proedko wrote his examples in common "C" and then provided actual example programs using A FREE C COMPILER instead of a product that could cost hundreds of dollars (or more). The examples are written for a cheap PIC microcontroller and Predko shows how you can get started for just a few bucks. Again, nicely done and somethign different for the series instead of the McCombs, Owings and Clark offerings which just rehashes information that is found in many other books. Ray Blome

Great book

This book has been a real help with my PIC based robot project. While I had microcontroller background, I had no experience with PIC's. The books focus is small robots using the PIC16F627 programmed in C. There are no assembly code examples, but the C code is well written and serves as a good model for translation to assembly. I have found that much of the content is scalable to my larger project (and a different PIC processor). There is no substitute for data sheets and app notes for essential knowledge about the PIC family, but this book provides a valuable jump start. I particularly found the discussion of software development tools (for PIC) to be useful. There are lots of useful PIC interface examples in chapter 4 (Microcontroller Connections). I liked the appendices (a little bit of everything) and found few errors in the book - an important feature for me. If I find too many technical errors, I will toss an otherwise useful book (good editing, whoever did it). I also found the author to be helpful in answering questions via email. Thanks, Myke.

Great book; Great example~!

Excellent book, I would dare say that this is certainly better than his previous books on Pic. As bculver13 says he focuses mainly on the PIC16F627/84. The only issue that I have with this book is the fact that most example code are in C language instead of Basic. I am impress with the info in the book, its basically everything you can possibly find about Pic on the net. What's better is that he actually EXPLAINS it~!! making my life a whole lot easier...

Great for interfacing sensors

Myke focuses on interfacing sensors to PIC's. His focus lies primarily on the PIC16F627/84. This book has been instrumental in helping me quickly interface my robots sensors, and specially test them quickly. I am a software programmer so it made my life easier. The CD which accompanies it contains the book's code examples, a great interactive interface, PIC tools (compilers, etc.), documentation, and more. I am impressed with Myke's work so far. Thanks Myke.