Book Review...

Books have been my largest resource in Robotics.
Some more that others.

Book

Reviews
Junkbots, Bugbots & Bots on Wheels
By: Dave Hrynkiw
& Mark W. Tilden

Junkbots... focuses on the BEAM style of robotics. In my opinion the BEAM mantra or philosophy if you will, is often anti Microcontroller. Much like the way that Mac people don't like PC's. They both seem silly to me but hey.

To the point now: This book is good. This book is a nice compilation of BEAM style projects, with good construction techniques and common pitfalls.

Excellent salvaging techniques can be attained from this book.
Salvaging is knowing what basic components are in most common electronics and having the ability to remove, identify and use the components salvaged.
Stiquito for beginners
By: Conrad Mills
 This is one of the few books that includes parts to build a robot.

They are small parts and if you want my review of the Stiquito robot you can see the gallery section.

Although I disliked the Stiquito robot, this book is a great one for starters. It is a great introduction to SMA's (Shape Memory Alloys).

Just a warning; this book is for beginners as the title implies. I have not read it, but there is also an advanced Stiquito experiments book, in that book the control system evolves to a more substantial and scalable design.
Robot Builders Bonanza
By: Gordon McComb
 This was the first book that I ever got on robotics and let me tell you I still reference it from time to time. This book covers so much on so many topics, from all kinds of sensors to interfacing techniques to Beam Designs vs Processor Designs. Also goes over ALLOT of construction techniques, how to modify a servo... There is so much to this Book it is a MUST HAVE.

Its a perfect book for a beginner as it uses plain English and not techno-babble. Mr. McComb certainly did his homework on this one, its HUGE and again just so helpful.
Robot Building For Beginners
By: David Cook
 This book takes a different approach by teaching you all of the concepts it teaches by building one robot, a line follower. Its a good book, but it doesn't really compare to Bonanza, as it is very difficult to use as a reference after you've read it.

Personally I also don't like his construction methods of Point to Point soldering because that's not really a good way to do it, you should really use wire-wrapping.

He does go over circuit board creation rather well though.

It still however is a good source of info.
PIC Microcontroller Project Book
By: John Iovine
 Of Microcontrollers that can be used in robotics, I am a big fan of PIC's. Although there are plenty out there that can be used, I feel that bang for the buck wise, these babies are great.

This book does an excellent job of introducing the PIC and the programming languages that can be used. He focuses mostly on a language called PICBASIC which was developed by MicroEngineeringLabs.

There are many projects in this book and this is a book that I would definitely recommend to anyone who wants to add a brain to their robot.

He also covers decision making concepts like fuzzy logic, and sub-sumption architecture.
 
Getting Started in Electronics
By: Forest M Mims III
 What a WEALTH of information this book provided for me.

It uses kind-of a cartoon drawing style and makes it very easy to learn how to read electronic diagrams. This man has written so many books for Radio Shack.

I highly recommend this book or any book by Forest M. Mims III.

In the Back he shows diagrams for about 100 projects.

Also Soldering, Wire-wrapping, Breadboards... the list goes on. 

  There are more books I have to review.
More to Come.....