Saturday, May 23, 2009

Robot Game Animals Catch Poachers

Hobby crossover alert! I found this National Geographic News article about robot deer, grizzlies, turkeys, moose (meese?), being used to catch poachers. (Picture is from the original article, given to NGN courtesy Custom Robotic Wildlife)

One of my other hobbies is hunting, so it is kind of neat and inspirational to find these hobby crossovers where someone is making the world a little bit better place.

More on my four-wheeling/hunting/fishing/camping/etc blog, Troubled Child: Offroad Adventures

Friday, May 15, 2009

Robotics Books

I saw a post on one of the robotics mailing lists that got me to thinking... I don't think I've ever mentioned what robotics books I like. Here's the list below. I created a Bot Thoughts Bookstore in case you want to order some of these from Amazon. :) :)
  • Intermediate Robot Building - Cook : lots of great explanation and circuits, some programming
  • Applied Robotics - Wise : programming, basic AI, circuits, mechanics
  • Insectronics - Williams : focused on building a walking robot; ideas for sensors
  • Mobile Robots: Inspiration to Implementation - Jones, Flynn : wide array of topics with a little more of the academics behind it all
  • 123 Robotics Experiments for the Evil Genius - Predko : literally 123 different things you can do robot-wise; the first few dozen are super basic, and it builds from there
  • Robots, Androids, and Animatrons - Iovine : some good inspiration but no technical detail
Anyway, hope this helps you on your robotics journey!