Homemade simple robots at home. Useful resources for creating a robot with your own hands. Basic requirements for a homemade robot

Who wouldn’t want to have a universal assistant, ready to carry out any assignment: wash the dishes, buy groceries, change a tire on the car, and take children to kindergarten and parents to work? The idea of ​​creating mechanized assistants has occupied engineering minds since ancient times. And Karel Capek even came up with a word for a mechanical servant - a robot that performs duties instead of a person.

Fortunately, in the current digital age, such assistants are sure to become a reality soon. In fact, intelligent mechanisms are already helping a person with household chores: a robot vacuum cleaner will clean up while the owners are at work, a multicooker will help prepare food, no worse than a self-assembled tablecloth, and the playful puppy Aibo will happily bring slippers or a ball. Sophisticated robots are used in manufacturing, medicine and space. They make it possible to partially, or even completely, replace human labor in difficult or dangerous conditions. At the same time, androids try to look like people in appearance, while industrial robots are usually created for economic and technological reasons and external decor is by no means a priority for them.

But it turns out that you can try to make a robot using improvised means. So, you can construct an original mechanism from a telephone handset, a computer mouse, a toothbrush, an old camera or the ubiquitous plastic bottle. By placing several sensors on the platform, you can program such a robot to perform simple operations: adjusting the lighting, sending signals, moving around the room. Of course, this is far from a multifunctional assistant from science fiction films, but such an activity develops ingenuity and creative engineering thinking, and unconditionally arouses admiration among those who consider robotics to be absolutely not a handicraft business.

Cyborg out of the box

One of the easiest decisions on the way to making a robot is to purchase ready set for robotics with step by step guide. This option is also suitable for those who are going to seriously engage in technical creativity, because one package contains all the necessary parts for mechanics: from electronic boards and specialized sensors, to a supply of bolts and stickers. Along with instructions allowing you to create a rather complex mechanism. Thanks to many accessories, such a robot can serve as an excellent base for creativity.

Basic school knowledge in physics and skills from labor lessons are quite enough to assemble the first robot. A variety of sensors and motors are controlled by control panels, and special programming environments make it possible to create real cyborgs that can execute commands.

For example, a sensor on a mechanical robot can detect the presence or absence of a surface in front of the device, and the program code can indicate in which direction the wheelbase should be turned. Such a robot will never fall off the table! By the way, real robot vacuum cleaners work on a similar principle. In addition to carrying out cleaning according to a given schedule and the ability to return to the base on time to recharge, this intelligent assistant can independently build trajectories for cleaning the room. Because there may be a variety of obstacles on the floor, such as chairs and wires, the robot must constantly scan the path ahead and avoid such obstacles.

In order for a robot created by oneself to be able to carry out various commands, manufacturers provide the possibility of programming it. Having compiled an algorithm for the robot's behavior in different conditions, you should create a code for the interaction of sensors with the outside world. This is possible thanks to the presence of a microcomputer, which is the brain center of such a mechanical robot.

Self-made mobile mechanism

Even without specialized, and usually expensive, kits, it is quite possible to make a mechanical manipulator using improvised means. So, having been inspired by the idea of ​​​​creating a robot, you should carefully analyze the stocks of home bins for the presence of unclaimed spare parts that can be used in this creative undertaking. They will use:

• a motor (for example, from an old toy);
• wheels from toy cars;
• construction details;
• carton boxes;
• fountain pen refills;
• different types of tape;
• glue;
• buttons, beads;
• screws, nuts, paper clips;
• all kinds of wires;
• light bulbs;
• battery (matching the voltage of the motor).

Advice: “A useful skill when creating a robot is the ability to use a soldering iron, because it will help securely fasten the mechanism, especially the electrical components.”

With the help of these publicly available components, you can create a real technical miracle.

So, in order to make your own robot from materials available at home, you should:

1. prepare the found parts for the mechanism, check their performance;
2. draw a model of the future robot, taking into account the available equipment;
3. put together a body for the robot from a construction set or cardboard parts;
4. glue or solder the parts responsible for the movement of the mechanism (for example, attach the robot motor to the wheelbase);
5. provide power to the motor by connecting it with a conductor to the corresponding battery contacts;
6. complement the themed decor of the device.

Advice: “Beady eyes for a robot, decorative horns-antennae made of wire, legs-springs, diode light bulbs will help to animate even the most boring mechanism. These elements can be attached with glue or tape.”

You can make the mechanism of such a robot in a few hours, after which all that remains is to come up with a name for the robot and present it to admiring spectators. Surely some of them will pick up the innovative idea and be able to make their own mechanical characters.

Famous smart machines

The cute robot Wall-E endears himself to the viewer of the film of the same name, making him empathize with his dramatic adventures, while the Terminator demonstrates the power of a soulless, invincible machine. Characters Star Wars– the faithful droids R2D2 and C3PO accompany him on journeys through the far, far away Galaxy, and the romantic Werther even sacrifices himself in a battle with space pirates.

Mechanical robots also exist outside of cinema. Thus, the world admires the skills of the humanoid robot Asimo, who can walk up the stairs, play football, serve drinks and greet politely. The Spirit and Curiosity rovers are equipped with autonomous chemical laboratories, which made it possible to analyze samples of Martian soils. Self-driving robotic cars can move without human intervention, even on complex city streets with high risks of unexpected events.

Perhaps it is from home attempts to create the first intellectual mechanisms that inventions will grow that will change the technical panorama of the future and the life of mankind.

Many of us who have encountered computer technology have dreamed of assembling our own robot. For this device to perform some duties around the house, for example, bring beer. Everyone immediately sets about creating the most complex robot, but often quickly breaks down the results. We never brought our first robot, which was supposed to make a lot of chips, to fruition. Therefore, you need to start simple, gradually complicating your beast. Now we will tell you how you can create a simple robot with your own hands that will independently move around your apartment.

Concept

We set ourselves a simple task, to make a simple robot. Looking ahead, I will say that we, of course, got by not in fifteen minutes, but in a much longer period. But still, this can be done in one evening.

Typically, such crafts take years to complete. People spend several months running around stores in search of the gear they need. But we immediately realized that this was not our path! Therefore, we will use in the design such parts that can be easily found at hand, or uprooted from old technology. As a last resort, buy for pennies in any radio store or market.

Another idea was to make our craft as cheap as possible. A similar robot costs from 800 to 1500 rubles in radio-electronic stores! Moreover, it is sold in the form of parts, but it still has to be assembled, and it is not a fact that after that it will also work. Manufacturers of such kits often forget to include some parts and that’s it – the robot is lost along with the money! Why do we need such happiness? Our robot should cost no more than 100-150 rubles in parts, including motors and batteries. At the same time, if you pick out the motors from an old children's car, then its price will generally be about 20-30 rubles! You feel the savings, and at the same time you get an excellent friend.

The next part was what our handsome man would do. We decided to make a robot that will search for light sources. If the light source turns, then our car will steer after it. This concept is called “a robot trying to live.” It will be possible to replace his batteries with solar cells and then he will look for light to drive.

Required parts and tools

What do we need to make our child? Since the concept is made from improvised means, we will need a circuit board, or even ordinary thick cardboard. You can use an awl to make holes in the cardboard to attach all the parts. We will use the assembly, because it was at hand, and you won’t find cardboard in my house during the day. This will be the chassis on which we will mount the rest of the robot’s harness, attach motors and sensors. As a driving force, we will use three or five-volt motors, which can be pulled out of old typewriter. We will make the wheels from the covers from plastic bottles, for example from Coca-Cola.

Three-volt phototransistors or photodiodes are used as sensors. They can even be pulled out of an old optomechanical mouse. It contains infrared sensors (in our case they were black). There they are paired, that is, two photocells in one bottle. With a tester, nothing prevents you from finding out which leg is intended for what. Our control element will be domestic 816G transistors. We use three AA batteries soldered together as power sources. Or you can take a battery compartment from an old machine, as we did. Wiring will be required for installation. Twisted pair wires are ideal for these purposes; any self-respecting hacker should have plenty of them in his home. To secure all the parts, it is convenient to use hot glue with a hot melt gun. This wonderful invention melts quickly and sets just as quickly, which allows you to quickly work with it and install simple elements. The thing is ideal for such crafts and I have used it more than once in my articles. We also need a stiff wire; an ordinary paper clip will do just fine.

We mount the circuit

So, we took out all the parts and stacked them on our table. The soldering iron is already smoldering with rosin and you are rubbing your hands, eager to assemble it, well, then let’s get started. We take a piece of assembly and cut it to the size of the future robot. To cut PCB we use metal scissors. We made a square with a side of about 4-5 cm. The main thing is that our tiny circuit, batteries, two motors and fasteners for the front wheel fit on it. So that the board does not become shaggy and is even, you can process it with a file and also remove sharp edges. Our next step will be sealing the sensors. Phototransistors and photodiodes have a plus and a minus, in other words, an anode and a cathode. It is necessary to observe the polarity of their inclusion, which is easy to determine with the simplest tester. If you make a mistake, nothing will burn, but the robot will not move. The sensors are soldered into the corners of the circuit board on one side so that they look to the sides. They should not be soldered completely into the board, but leave about one and a half centimeters of leads so that they can be easily bent in any direction - we will need this later when setting up our robot. These will be our eyes, they should be on one side of our chassis, which in the future will be the front of the robot. It can be immediately noted that we are assembling two control circuits: one for controlling the right and the second left engines.

A little further from the front edge of the chassis, next to our sensors, we need to solder in transistors. For the convenience of soldering and assembling the further circuit, we soldered both transistors with their markings “facing” towards the right wheel. You should immediately note the location of the legs of the transistor. If you take the transistor in your hands and turn the metal substrate towards you, and the markings towards the forest (like in a fairy tale), and the legs are directed downwards, then from left to right the legs will be, respectively: base, collector and emitter. If you look at the diagram showing our transistor, then the base will be a stick perpendicular to the thick segment in the circle, the emitter will be a stick with an arrow, the collector will be the same stick, only without the arrow. Everything seems clear here. Let's prepare the batteries and proceed to the actual assembly of the electrical circuit. Initially, we simply took three AA batteries and soldered them in series. You can immediately insert them into a special battery holder, which, as we have already said, is pulled out of an old children's car. Now we solder the wires to the batteries and determine two key points on our board where all the wires will converge. This will be a plus and a minus. We did it simply - we threaded a twisted pair into the edges of the board, soldered the ends to the transistors and photo sensors, made a twisted loop and soldered the batteries there. Perhaps not the most the best option, but the most convenient. Well, now we prepare the wires and begin assembling the electrics. We will go from the positive pole of the battery to the negative contact, throughout the entire electrical circuit. We take a piece of twisted pair and start walking - we solder the positive contact of both photo sensors to the plus of the batteries, and solder the emitters of the transistors in the same place. We solder the second leg of the photocell with a small piece of wire to the base of the transistor. We solder the remaining, last legs of the transyuk to the engines respectively. The second contact of the motors can be soldered to the battery through a switch.

But like true Jedi, we decided to turn on our robot by soldering and unsoldering the wire, since the switch suitable size I didn’t find it in my bins.

Electrical debugging

That's it, we've assembled the electrical part, now let's start testing the circuit. We turn on our circuit and bring it to the lit table lamp. Take turns, turning first one or the other photocell. And let's see what happens. If our engines begin to rotate in turn at different speeds, depending on the lighting, then everything is in order. If not, then look for jambs in the assembly. Electronics is the science of contacts, which means that if something does not work, then there is no contact somewhere. Important point: the right photo sensor is responsible for the left wheel, and the left one, respectively, for the right one. Now, let’s figure out which way the right and left engines rotate. They should both spin forward. If this does not happen, then you need to change the polarity of turning on the motor, which is spinning in the wrong direction, simply by re-soldering the wires at the motor terminals the other way around. We once again evaluate the location of the motors on the chassis and check the direction of movement in the direction where our sensors are installed. If everything is in order, then we will move on. In any case, this can be fixed, even after everything is finally assembled.

Assembling the device

We've dealt with the tedious electrical part, now let's move on to the mechanics. We will make the wheels from caps from plastic bottles. To make the front wheel, take two covers and glue them together.

We glued it around the perimeter with the hollow part facing inward for greater stability of the wheel. Next, drill a hole in the first and second lids exactly in the center of the lid. For drilling and all sorts of household crafts, it is very convenient to use a Dremel - a sort of small drill with a lot of attachments, milling, cutting and many others. It is very convenient to use for drilling holes smaller than one millimeter, where a conventional drill cannot cope.

After we drill the covers, we insert a pre-bent paper clip into the hole.

We bend the paperclip into the shape of the letter “P”, where the wheel hangs on the top bar of our letter.

Now we fix this paper clip between the photo sensors, in front of our car. The clip is convenient because you can easily adjust the height of the front wheel, and we will deal with this adjustment later.

Let's move on to the driving wheels. We will also make them from lids. Similarly, we drill each wheel strictly in the center. It is best for the drill to be the size of the motor axle, and ideally a fraction of a millimeter smaller so that the axle can be inserted there, but with difficulty. We put both wheels on the motor shaft, and so that they do not jump off, we secure them with hot glue.

It is important to do this not only so that the wheels do not fly off when moving, but also do not rotate at the fastening point.

The most important part is mounting the electric motors. We placed them at the very end of our chassis, on the opposite side of the circuit board from all the other electronics. It must be remembered that the controlled motor is placed opposite its control photosystem. This is done so that the robot can turn towards the light. On the right is the photosensor, on the left is the engine and vice versa. To begin with, we will intercept the engines with pieces of twisted pair, threaded through the holes in the installation and twisted from above.

We supply power and see where our engines are rotating. The motors will not rotate in a dark room; it is advisable to point them at a lamp. We check that all engines are working. We turn the robot and watch how the motors change their rotation speed depending on the lighting. Let's turn it with the right photo sensor, and the left engine should spin quickly, and the other one, on the contrary, will slow down. Finally, we check the direction of rotation of the wheels so that the robot moves forward. If everything works as we described, then you can carefully secure the sliders with hot glue.

We try to make sure that their wheels are on the same axle. That’s it – we fix the batteries on the top platform of the chassis and move on to setting up and playing with the robot.

Pitfalls and setup

The first pitfall in our craft was unexpected. When we assembled the entire circuit and technical part, all the engines responded perfectly to the light, and everything seemed to be going great. But when we put our robot on the floor, it didn’t work for us. It turned out that the power of the motors was simply not enough. I had to urgently tear apart the children's car in order to get more powerful engines from there. By the way, if you take motors from toys, you definitely can’t go wrong with their power, since they are designed to carry a lot of cars with batteries. Once we figured out the engines, we moved on to tuning and drive cosmetic appearance. First we need to collect the beards of wires that are dragging along the floor and secure them to the chassis with hot glue.

If the robot is dragging somewhere on its belly, then you can lift the front chassis by bending the fastening wire. The most important thing is photo sensors. It is best to bend them looking to the side at thirty degrees from the main course. Then it will pick up light sources and move towards them. The required bending angle will have to be selected experimentally. That's it, arm yourself with a table lamp, put the robot on the floor, turn it on and start checking and enjoying how your child clearly follows the light source and how cleverly he finds it.

Improvements

There is no limit to perfection and you can add endless functions to our robot. There were even thoughts of installing a controller, but then the cost and complexity of manufacturing would increase significantly, and this is not our method.

The first improvement is to make a robot that would travel along a given trajectory. Everything is simple here, take a black stripe and print it on the printer, or similarly draw it in black permanent marker on a sheet of Whatman paper. The main thing is that the strip is slightly narrower than the width of the sealed photo sensors. We lower the photocells themselves so that they look at the floor. Next to each of our eyes we install a super-bright LED in series with a resistance of 470 Ohms. We solder the LED itself with resistance directly to the battery. The idea is simple, the light reflects perfectly from a white sheet of paper, hits our sensor and the robot drives straight. As soon as the beam hits the dark stripe, almost no light reaches the photocell ( black paper absorbs light perfectly), and therefore one motor begins to rotate more slowly. Another motor quickly turns the robot, leveling its course. As a result, the robot rolls along the black stripe, as if on rails. You can draw such a stripe on a white floor and send the robot to the kitchen to get beer from your computer.

The second idea is to complicate the circuit by adding two more transistors and two photosensors and make the robot look for light not only from the front, but also from all sides, and as soon as it finds it, it rushes towards it. Everything will just depend on which side the light source appears from: if in front, it will go forward, and if from behind, it will roll back. Even in this case, to simplify assembly, you can use the LM293D chip, but it costs about a hundred rubles. But with its help you can easily configure the differential activation of the direction of rotation of the wheels or, more simply, the direction of movement of the robot: forward and backward.

The last thing you can do is to completely remove the batteries that constantly run out and install a solar battery, which you can now buy in a mobile phone accessories store (or on dialextreme). To prevent the robot from completely losing its functionality in this mode, if it accidentally enters the shade, you can connect a solar battery in parallel - an electrolytic capacitor with a very large capacity (thousands of microfarads). Since our voltage there does not exceed five volts, we can take a capacitor designed for 6.3 volts. With such a capacity and voltage it will be quite miniature. Converters can either be bought or uprooted from old power supplies.
We think you can come up with the rest of the possible variations yourself. If there is something interesting, be sure to write.

conclusions

So we have joined the greatest science, the engine of progress - cybernetics. In the seventies of the last century, it was very popular to design such robots. It should be noted that our creation uses the rudiments of analog computing technology, which died out with the advent of digital technologies. But as I showed in this article, all is not lost. I hope that we will not stop at constructing such a simple robot, but will come up with new and new designs, and you will surprise us with your interesting crafts. Good luck with the build!

Electronics lovers and people interested in robotics do not miss the opportunity to independently design a simple or complex robot, enjoy the assembly process itself and the result.

You don’t always have the time or desire to clean the house, but... modern technology allow you to create cleaning robots. These include a robotic vacuum cleaner that travels around rooms for hours and collects dust.

Where to start if you want to create a robot with your own hands? Of course, the first robots should be easy to create. The robot that will be discussed in today's article will not take much time and does not require special skills.

Continuing the theme of creating robots with your own hands, I suggest trying to make a dancing robot from improvised materials. To create a robot with your own hands you will need simple materials, which can probably be found in almost every home.

The variety of robots is not limited to the specific patterns by which these robots are created. People always come up with original interesting ideas how to make a robot. Some create static sculptures of robots, others create dynamic sculptures of robots, which is what we will discuss in today's article.

Anyone can make a robot with their own hands, even a child. The robot, which will be described below, is easy to create and does not require much time. I’ll try to describe the stages of creating a robot with my own hands.

Sometimes ideas for creating a robot come completely unexpectedly. If you think about how to make a robot move using improvised means, the thought of batteries comes to mind. But what if everything is much simpler and more accessible? Let's try to make a robot with our own hands using mobile phone as the main part. To create a vibration robot with your own hands, you will need the following materials.

Today we will tell you how to make a robot from available materials. The resulting “high-tech android,” although small in size and unlikely to help you with housework, will certainly amuse both children and adults.

Necessary materials

• 2 pieces of wire
• 1 motor
• 1 AA battery
• 3 push pins
• 2 pieces of foam board or similar material
• 2-3 heads of old toothbrushes or a few paper clips

1. Attach the battery to the motor

Place a couple of drops of glue on the very end of the destabilizer, or attach some decorative element- this will add individuality to the robot and increase the amplitude of its movements.

3. Legs

5. Battery connection

6. Eyes

Robotics is one of the most promising areas in the field of Internet technologies, and in our time there is no need to explain that the IT sector is the future. Robotics is a fascinating thing: to design a robot is almost to create a new creature, albeit an electronic one.

Since the 60s of the last century, automated and self-managing devices that do some work for a person began to be used for research and in production, then in the service sector, and since then, every year they have become more firmly established in their place in people’s lives. Of course, it cannot be said that in Russia everything is carried out entirely by independent mechanisms, but a certain vector in this direction is definitely outlined. Sberbank is already planning to replace three thousand lawyers with smart machines.

Together with experts, we will try to figure out why robotics is needed and how to approach it.

How does robotics for children differ from professional robotics?

In short, robotics for children is aimed at studying a subject, while professional robotics is aimed at solving specific problems. If specialists create industrial manipulators that perform various technological tasks, or specialized wheeled platforms, then amateurs and children, of course, do simpler things.

Tatyana Volkova, employee of the Center for Intelligent Robotics: “As a rule, this is where everyone starts: they figure out the motors and force the robot to simply drive forward, then make turns. When the robot executes movement commands, you can already connect a sensor and make the robot move towards the light or, conversely, “run away” from it. And then comes the favorite task of all beginners: a robot that drives along a line. There are even various robot races organized.”

How can you tell if your child has a penchant for robotics?

First you need to buy a construction set and see if your child likes assembling it. And then you can give it to the circle. Classes will help him develop fine motor skills, imagination, spatial perception, logic, concentration and patience.

The sooner you can decide on the direction of robotics - design, electronics, programming - the better. All three areas are vast and require separate study.

Alexander Kolotov, leading specialist in STEM programs at Innopolis University: “If a child likes to assemble construction sets, then construction will suit him. If he is interested in learning how things work, then he will enjoy doing electronics. If a child has a passion for mathematics, then he will be interested in programming.”

When to start learning robotics?

It is best to start studying and enrolling in clubs from childhood, however, not too early - at 8-12 years old, experts say. Before the child it is more difficult to grasp understandable abstractions, and later, in adolescence, he may develop other interests and become distracted. The child also needs to be motivated to study mathematics, so that in the future it will be interesting and easy for him to design mechanisms and circuits, and compose algorithms.

From 8-9 years old Children can already understand and remember what a resistor, LED, capacitor is, and later master concepts from school physics ahead of schedule school curriculum. It doesn’t matter whether they become specialists in this field or not, the knowledge and skills they gain will definitely not be in vain.

At 14-15 years old you need to continue to study mathematics, push robotics classes into the background and start studying programming more seriously - to understand not only complex algorithms, but also data storage structures. Next comes the mathematical basis and knowledge in algorithmization, immersion in the theory of mechanisms and machines, design of electromechanical equipment of a robotic device, implementation of automatic navigation algorithms, computer vision algorithms and machine learning.

Alexander Kolotov: “If at this moment you introduce a future specialist to the basics of linear algebra, complex calculus, the theory of probability and statistics, then by the time he enters a university he will already have a good idea of ​​why he should pay additional attention to these subjects when receiving higher education.”

Which designers to choose?

Each age has its own educational programs, constructors and platforms, varying in degree of complexity. You can find both foreign and domestic products. Eat expensive sets for robotics (around 30 thousand rubles and above), there are also cheaper, very simple ones (within 1-3 thousand rubles).

If the child 8-11 years, you can buy Lego or Fischertechnik construction sets (although, of course, manufacturers have offers for both younger and older ages). The Lego robotics kit has interesting details, colorful figures, is easy to assemble and comes with detailed instructions. The Fischertechnik series of construction sets for robotics brings you closer to the real development process, here you have wires, plugs, and a visual programming environment.

At 13-14 years old you can start working with TRIC or Arduino modules, which, according to Tatyana Volkova, are practically a standard in the field educational robotics, as well as Raspberry. TRIC is more complex than Lego, but lighter than Arduino and Raspberry Ri. The last two already require basic programming skills.

What else will you need to study?

Programming. It is possible to avoid it only at the initial stage, but then you can’t live without it. You can start with Lego Mindstorms, Python, ROS (Robot Operating System).

Basic mechanics. You can start with crafts made from paper, cardboard, bottles, which is also important for fine motor skills, and for general development. The simplest robot can be made from individual parts (motors, wires, a photosensor and one simple microcircuit). The “Making Tool with Father Sperch” will help you get acquainted with the basic mechanics.

Basics of Electronics. First, learn how to collect simple circuits. For children under eight years old, experts recommend the “Connoisseur” construction set; then you can move on to the “Basics of Electronics” set. Start".

Where can children practice robotics?

If you see a child’s interest, you can send him to clubs and courses, although you can study on your own. During the courses, the child will be under the guidance of specialists, will be able to find like-minded people, and will engage in robotics on a regular basis.

It is also advisable to immediately understand what you want from classes: to participate in competitions and compete for prizes, to participate in project activities or just study for yourself.

Alexey Kolotov: “For serious classes, projects, participation in competitions, you need to choose clubs with small groups of 6-8 people and a coach who leads students to prizes in competitions, who constantly develops himself and gives interesting tasks. For hobby activities, you can go to groups of up to 20 people.”

How to choose robotics courses?

When registering for courses, pay attention to the teacher, recommends commercial director of Promobot Oleg Kivokurtsev. “There are precedents when a teacher simply gives the children the equipment, and then anyone can do whatever they want,” Tatyana Volkova agrees with Oleg. Such activities will be of little use.

When choosing courses, you should also pay attention to on the existing material and technical base. Are there construction kits (not just Lego), is it possible to write programs, study mechanics and electronics, and make projects yourself. Each pair of students should have their own robotics kit. Preferably with additional parts (wheels, gears, frame elements) if you want to participate in competitions. If several teams are working with one set at once, then, most likely, no serious competition is expected.

Find out what competitions the robotics club participates in. Do these competitions help you consolidate your acquired skills and provide an opportunity for further development?

Robocup Competition 2014

How to study robotics on your own?

Courses require money and time. If the first one is not enough and you won’t be able to go somewhere regularly, you can study independently with your child. It is important that parents have the necessary competence in this area: without the help of a parent, it will be quite difficult for a child to master robotics, warns Oleg Kivokurtsev.

Find material to study. They can be taken on the Internet, from ordered books, at conferences attended, from the magazine “Entertaining Robotics”. For self-study, there are free online courses, for example, “Building robots and other devices using Arduino: from a traffic light to a 3D printer.”

Should adults learn robotics?

If you have already left childhood, this does not mean that the doors of robotics are closed for you. You can also enroll in courses or study it on your own.

If a person decides to do this as a hobby, then his path will be the same as that of a child. However, it is clear that it is unlikely that you will be able to advance beyond the amateur level without a professional education (design engineer, programmer and electronics engineer), although, of course, no one forbids you to get an internship at a company and stubbornly gnaw on the granite of a new direction for you.

Oleg Kivokurtsev: “It will be easier for an adult to master robotics, but important factor is time."

For those who have a similar specialty, but want to retrain, there are also various courses to help. For example, for machine learning specialists, a free online course on probabilistic robotics “ Artificial intelligence in robotics." There is also the Intel educational program, the Lectorium educational project, and ITMO distance courses. Don’t forget about books, for example, there is a lot of literature for beginners (“Basics of Robotics”, “Introduction to Robotics”, “Handbook for Robotics”). Choose what is most clear and suitable for you.

It should be remembered that serious work differs from amateur hobby at least in the cost of equipment costs and the list of tasks assigned to the employee. It’s one thing to assemble the simplest robot with your own hands, but quite another to practice, for example, computer vision. Therefore, it is still better to study the basics of design, programming and hardware engineering from an early age and subsequently, if you like it, enter a specialized university.

Which universities should I go to study at?

Majors related to robotics can be found at the following universities:

— Moscow Technological University (MIREA, MGUPI, MITHT);

— Moscow State Technical University named after. N. E. Bauman;

— Moscow State Technological University “Stankin”;

— National Research University “MPEI” (Moscow);

— Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Moscow);

— Moscow State Transport University of Emperor Nicholas II;

— Moscow State University of Food Production;

— Moscow State Forestry University;

— St. Petersburg State University of Aerospace Instrumentation (SGUAP);

— St. Petersburg National Research University of Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics (ITMO);

— Magnitogorsk State Technical University;

— Omsk State Technical University;

— Saratov State Technical University;

— Innopolis University (Republic of Tatarstan);

— South Russian Federal University (Novocherkassk State Technical University).

The most important

Knowing the basics of robotics may soon be useful for ordinary people, and the opportunity to become a specialist in this field looks very promising, so it’s definitely worth at least trying your hand at robotics.