Build Your Own Combat Robot

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NLESS you’re building an exact copy of another person’s robot, you
will probably have to do some experimentation with prototypes before you settle
on a final design. Even if you’re copying a machine, one machine will never act just
like another— this includes circuitry and mechanical systems design. As you
know, combat robots come in a multitude of configurations, with many circuits
that accomplish every imaginable control function. Each of these systems was analyzed
by its developer before being connected to another subsystem. This designer
probably bench-tested and tweaked each new configuration before adding
another system to it. With any robot design, some systems that perform perfectly
with one subsystem will not work at all with another.
Breadboarding and Using Prototyping Boards
for Electronic Circuits
The term breadboarding implies interconnecting a series of components in a temporary
fashion to determine whether they will work together as designed. A
breadboard of an electronic circuit, for example, can be built on a prototyping
boards. These boards can include up to several thousand holes in which to insert
standard electronic components to develop a circuit. The components are then interconnected
by inserting short lengths of #22-gauge solid conductor wires in the
adjacent holes.
Such prototyping boards are useful in proving out a circuit you may have seen
in a magazine article, or for proving out one you designed in your head. All the
major electronic supply houses carry a variety of prototyping boards, and some
even contain built-in power supplies, logic indicators, and signal generators.
The use of prototyping boards can help you tweak the circuit for your particular
application. Varying resistors and other components can help you narrow
down a circuit to one that has the best characteristics for whatever you intend to
interface it with.
At this point, you may want to start drawing out a printed circuit board (PCB)
pattern by hand and etch, or carve with an etching solution, your own board.
Computer software, such as the lower end Eagle and others, are available to lay
out simple boards. PCB houses can be found on the Internet that will take Spice
and Gerber (electronic circuit software) files directly as a attachment and deliver one
or more etched and through-hole plated boards back to you within just a few days.