How to make robots?

Gone are the days of playing with robot. Young minds are making heads way into robotics by designing their own robots. Robotics is a combination of mechanical, programming, mathematics, and other science disciplines. Take these disciplines, put it into a grinder, bake it, and robot is ready. ha ha ha. It can be so easy if you know where to start making robots. So question here is "How to make robots".

You can start your robot education by using robotics kit available in market like - LEGO MINDSTORMS PROJECTS, VEX, BIOLOID, or any other kit available in your geography, and make robotics project you may like. You need 1) Building blocks to create structure of robot 2) Micro-controller to program your robot 3) Sensors to receive signal and respond 4) Motor to provide motion capability 5) Programming environment to write program.

Building blocks to create structure of robot - You need these components to give shape to your robot like humanoid, car, or any other shape you may like. This is an important engineering discipline, as you need to think through your component like where to put motor, how to use gears, how to make your robot stable, how it can cross obstacle, and much more.

Micro-controller to program your robot - Think of it as brain of robot. It provides all decision making to your robot. LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT is one such micro controller. NXT brick can be programmed to make the robot functional.

Sensors receive signal respond - Sensors are key components of a robot. You need sensors to receive signal like obstacle in front, pressure, temperature, light intensity, etc. and make decision based on these inputs. Sensors are part of structural design, so structure of a robot must be though through taking into account sensors.

Motors to provide motion capability - It can be to move a robot, or move an arm of humanoid, or fork of a fork lift. Motors provide motion capability and key part of a robot.

Programming environment to write program - MINDSTORMS NXT comes with a UI based programming environment. RobotC programming language can also be used on NXT brick. RoboGalaxy provides online robotics education and robotics projects supported by multi-media of programming lessons.

RoboGalaxy (www.robogalaxy.com) provides a online robotics education on how to make robots. Structural design is taught with enough rationale on choosing right design based on need and it is supported by building instructions. Programming is taught from fundamentals like flow chart, that helps students understand the logic and make programming very easy. RoboGalaxy also provides repository of Robotics project supported by building instruction, program, and usage videos. Also, you can explore WRO and FLL projects and learn from previous challenges.