Robot Programming: A Guide to Controlling Autonomous Robots 1st Edition, Kindle Edition

I suggest passing on this book, and looking for others that cover the topic you are interested in.I have the feeling the authors set out to write an awesome book. But as they worked on the book, they found themselves pulled in too many directions when trying to cover such a complex topic. The result is a book that accomplishes very little, and yet takes a lot of mental energy to read.Here's the problem. If you are trying to learn:How to build a robot...This book is too shallow and theoretical. You will finish the book with very little capability to build an actual robot.How to apply your existing programming skills to a create an autonomous robot...The code in this book is more like pseudo-code and avoids showing how to program things like a motor controller class, or a sensor interpretation class. The code examples use fictitious classes like PathPlanner that assumes it simply returns a path to follow. And yet the other pseudo-code is also too low level to show how to program something like a path planning class.How to program for the first time...It just doesn't go into that. Find a popular Object-Oriented Programming book.How to think about designing a robot that will think for itself...This book only discusses programming robots to perform KNOWN tasks in KNOWN environments. It does not cover programming robots to perform previously unknown tasks, or work in previously unknown environments. That's really why I was looking to learn to program autonomous robots. Unfortunately, the book doesn't state that this is its focus until the last chapter as it summarizes what it covered.And generally, it's a hard to digest book. In an apparent attempt to take complex programming and physical problems, and make them obvious to unfamiliar readers, the authors use a variety of silly acronyms and metaphors that are a bit too contrived. For example: BRON (Bluetooth Robot Oriented Network) as a way to label common sidebars from robot history that relate to the text (but has absolutely nothing to do with Bluetooth).And REQUIRE (Robot Effectiveness Quotient Used In Real Environments) which is just the idea that a robot's hardware needs to be capable of executing the task, like if it needs to detect color it needs a color sensor (why not just call it a Capability Assessment?).There are also LOTS of errors in the book. Typos, grammatical errors, incomplete sentences, and in the first half of the book about 1/3rd of the code examples are mislabeled (a Java code example labeled as Arduino, and vice-versa).And a personal dislike, the figures and code examples appear after they are discussed in the text. Sometimes, several pages after. You find yourself flipping pages back and forth to look at the diagram/figure so the text makes sense.Fortunately, the book does have references to several interesting robot hardware components, and refers to several other books for readers who want to read about the topics this book avoids.My suggestion: Save yourself a lot of time and frustration, and consider other books.

No complaints

It is very nice, good introduction. Very well formated and very easy to read. Clear charts and designs, sharp printing.There is no need to be a tech expert to read it, but some knowledge around programming and some notions of computer inner working is a plus, that will help for sure.What you need before buying it:- Notions of programming and algorithms.- Notions of computers.- Notions of electric systems (just the basics okay).No doubt that woth the money if you like the subject. It is more for a relaxing reading around the subject.

This is the book I wished that I had in my teens, before ever setting foot in a college CompSci class - it would have provided me a lot of direction into the core concentrations required to master the knowledge domains required. This is a thorough, accurate, and realistic depiction of the state-of-the art in the field, touching a huge number of topics. Very few books are as practical and hands-on as this one, it is a real standout. I am faculty at the University level, I have read more than a few. This book would be very appropriate for most gifted or extremely self-motivated high school students, competitive robotics teams, hackathon hackers, and serious undergraduate college students. Highest recommendation.

This is a good intro to robot programming. Although you can get preprogrammed boards downloaded via RS232 interface, nevertheless one should not take that in place of learning how to program.If you are into robot building, this is one piece of the puzzle you won't want to be without.

I'm electrical engineer student this book helped me to write my final year project report "Robot Arm" as well the project itself!

I have yet to read it as I have been very busy. I placed 3 stars on the review as my expected review could be from 2 to 5 stars.

Great Christmas gift, for my nephew. He really loves it.

Ok, but there are better books.

Tenia mis dudas acerca del contenido de este libro al pensar que tendria muchas omisiones, pero no es asi el contenido es bueno y los temas que trata tienen un buen balance en la informacion, abarcando varios tipos de robots y marcas con los que puedes interacturar y controlarSe recomienda.

Llegó en tiempo y forma, excelente referencia, muy didáctico, los diagramas explicativos son muy buenos

perfect