Brian Benson

Designing and Building a Robot from Scratch | Part 1
March 2008
When you are creating a custom robot, there is no manual, instructions, or tech support. You start with a blank slate, with thousands of options available to you. You have to ask yourself and answer questions like “How big will it be? What will power it? What materials will I use for the frame?” and many more. With an unstructured approach, this can seem like an impossible task. However, if you approach the problem with a plan, breaking down the problem into chunks, it is not as difficult as...

Designing and Building a Robot from Scratch | Part 2
April 2008
...we can now begin the actual design! In this installment, I will be discussing how to determine what you need for parts, how to choose them, developing your design, and more! There is one thing that is true about design ... it is an iterative process! While I have outlined the following steps in the order that is the best way to approach a design, you will find that you will spend much of the time going back and forth making adjustments, changing your mind, and fixing problems...

Designing and Building a Robot from Scratch | Part 3
May 2008
Next, we chose a frame type and the components along with determining the ideal layout. We completed the design of the robot (shown in Figure 1) and now we are ready to discuss final preparation before the actual construction phase!

Designing and Building a Robot from Scratch | Part 4
June 2008
Next, we chose a frame type and the components along with determining the ideal layout. We completed the design of the robot and learned some tools and techniques that can be useful when building a robot. With all of this done, we can now build the robot! In the next few sections, I have outlined the actual building process of the robot...