First Day of "Hands On" Exploring....If you can call it that

Looking at Robots:

Some quick background in Robots, according to Knudsen.
A robot has five fundamental Components:

1. A Brain or a computer
2. A body, which holds the pieces together
3. Actuators, which allow the robot to move
4. Sensors, which allow the robot to work with its surroundings
5. Power Source

When you get into mobile robots, you have tethered robots and autonomous robots. The main difference between the two is whether or not the robot carries everything with it (autonomous) or if it is tethered to a power source and/or a computer.

Today I spent a good amount of time reading the beginning/introduction chapters of the two books plus getting firmware onto the RCX Unit.

To help people get a better idea of what I am working with:
I am using an older Lego MindStorms Robotic Invention System (RIS).
The brain of the Robot will be the RCX 1.0.
It has two motors so that it can move around in the world. The two types of sensors that it has are touch sensors and light sensors.

Total Hours Spent on Project: 2 Hours