[.ca] Robot Building For Dummies (ISBN 0764540696)

Don't waste your money on the book or the required $318 kit:
I have been into the hobby of robotics for many years now and have to say that "THIS BOOK IS USELESS TO ANYONE HOPING TO BEGIN OR IMPROVE THEIR ROBOTICS SKILL SET". I was given this book as a gift for my birthday and have to admit it was a wasted gift. The first half (3rd actually) of the book is based on pure beginner how to and info, fine. Through out the basic discussion of gear ratios , batteries and electronics are references to the Arobot kit and how it is mentioned later. In the second half (3rd actually) of the book, where Roger starts the high level discussion on robotics, all you do is construct the $235 - $318 robot kit that he sells on his web page. The most helpful information in the whole book came from the list of 10's section (the last 3rd) found in all dummies books. If it weren't a gift I would have gotten my money back.

Robots, Electronics and much more:
This book is a grrrreat introduction to electronics and robotics. If you have a young son or daughter and would like to share a wonderful learning experience with him or her , get this book along with the ARobot! There's a lot to learn here : basic hands-on techniques such as soldering, theory and application of electronic components, and the wonderful world of microcontrollers : how to program them, how to use them to control a Robot's movement and how to implement interfaces with the outside world through different kinds of sensors. Your kid will definitely thank you !

Great gift for those on your list who love to build robots!:
Since a kid I've loved this type of stuff...Erector sets and all. I was intrigued by the ideal of building a robot but had no idea it could be so easy to build one ( and that the robot could actually DO STUFF!). Thank goodness for this Dummies book, or I would have been too intimidated to give it a try. I'm thing of giving a couple copies of this book to some buddies as gifts too because I had so much fun using it.