This is the introduction to the BUILD MOBILE ROBOTS blog. I am beginning this blog today, 10/28/21, to document work I have done and will do on the design, construction, programming and test of mobile robots. The work on robots which has led to this blog resulted from: 1) personal interest in robotics, 2) STEM educational activities for students ranging from elementary school to working engineers, 3) several years of mentoring for FIRST Robotics teams and 4) an enjoyment of building machines and making them work. The mobile robots covered range in size from a few square inches in foot print to ones that are 30 inches on a side. All fit into the following definition of a mobile robot:

A system with: •Sensor(s) that detect some parameter(s) of the environment •Sensor(s) that detect some parameter(s) of the system •Power source(s) either (or both) self contained or external •Computational / computer capability that controls some parameters of operation •Mechanical and/or electrical/electronic function(s) that can interact with some characteristic of the environment •Capability to operate autonomously or teleoperated (remote plus local control) •the capability to move .. mobile robot •A mission objective that results in a change to or detection of the environment.

This is one of many definitions for robots and specifically mobile robots that can be found in the literature.

I am an electrical engineer with 40 plus years working on engineering projects in industry. These ranged from work on the Apollo guidance system and the main battle tank to 35 years doing research, product design and software testing plus research and product management for a $22 Billion in sales international company. Most of my work was on environmental controls for large buildings. At this writing it has been 14 years since I retired and began what has been essentially a new career primarily in STEM education at many levels and has included teaching a number of courses on mobile robots as well as their construction.

My objectives for this blog are: 1) to provide what I hope is useful information on mobile robotics for those interested in this topic and 2) to document the work I’ve done and things I’ve learned for the robots I either have built or I have purchased. The blog content will include descriptions of the many robots I have worked with. The specific topics will be varied. In some cases I will look at how some function is implemented (i.e. using an RC transmitter for Arduino computer control) or how purchased robots have been found to function (i.e. the DJI FPV drone). The commentary is not intended to be academic or a complete ‘how to build’ a specific robot. It is not a tutorial for someone actively doing mobile robot design in industry. Basically, the blog is my discussion about robots I’ve built over numbers of years or am building, things I’ve learned in the process and things I think are interesting, challenging or fun.