First Robots: Behind the Design

Wilczynski, Vince;Slezycki, Stephanie

ISBN 10: 1592533663 / ISBN 13: 9781592533664

Published by Rockport Publishers, Gloucester, Massachusetts, 2007

About this Item

272pp. Foreword by Dean Kamen. Afterword by Woodie Flowers. Full col. illust. laminated boards, frontis., col. & b/w plts., illust., text ills., diags., line drawings, plans, graphs, directory of award winners. This book features 30 award-winning robots from the First Robots Competition, which partners youth and mentors to design and construct robots for exciting sports-like competition. The annual event draws leading robot designers who simultaneously compete and cooperate to introduce students to the rewards of science and engineering. The 30 robots featured were selected from over 1,000 participants in the robotics competition as outstanding examples of engineering and design excellence. Size: Quarto. Seller Inventory # 000366

Bibliographic Details

Title: First Robots: Behind the Design

Publisher: Rockport Publishers, Gloucester, Massachusetts

Publication Date: 2007

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: New

Edition: 1st Edition.

Book Type: Book

About this title

Synopsis:

Personal robots are about as advanced today as personal computers were on the eve of the first IBM PC in the early 1980s. They are still the domain of hobbyists who cobble them together from scratch or from kits, join local clubs to swap code and stage contests, and whose labor of love is setting the stage for a technological revolution. This book will deconstruct the 30 regional winning robot designs from the FIRST Robotics Competition in 2006. The FIRST Robotics Competition (held annually and co-founded by Dean Kamen and Woodie Flowers) is a multinational competition that teams professionals and young people to solve an engineering design problem in an intense and competitive way. In 2005 the competition reached close to 25,000 people on close to 1,000 teams in 30 competitions. Teams came from Brazil, Canada, Ecuador, Israel, Mexico, the U.K., and almost every U.S. state. The competitions are high-tech spectator sporting events that have gained a loyal following because of the high caliber work featured. Each team is paired with a mentor from such companies as Apple, Motorola, or NASA (NASA has sponsored 200 teams in 8 years).

This book looks at 30 different robot designs all based on the same chassis, and provides in-depth information on the inspiration and the technology that went into building each of them. Each robot is featured in 6-8 pages providing readers with a solid understanding of how the robot was conceived and built. There are sketches, interim drawings, and process shots for each robot.

About the Author:

Vince Wilczynski, Ph.D., directs the mechanical engineering major at a New England institution of higher education where he has incorporated robotics and homeland security projects into the mechanical engineering curriculum. He serves as the Vice President of Public Awareness for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, is a member of the Executive Advisory Board of the FIRST Robotics Foundation and is a fellow with the American Council on Education.

Stephanie Slezycki, a FIRST Robotics alum, is a mechanical engineer at a marine systems defense contractor. She is engaged in technical evaluation and implementation of design improvements to future platforms and also studies the adaptation of robotic technology to improve manufacturing processes.