The Ultimate Palm Robot

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Palm PDAs are superbly evolved for running robots. They're cheap, rugged, mobile, and plenty powerful enough for today’s hobbyist devices. Using a Palm as your robot's brain, umm, short-circuits much of the hassle normally associated with robotics. It’s a great way to get started. The Ultimate Palm Robot covers every detail and comes with all the software you need.

The authors start with parts, discussing kits from Acroname, as well as individual components: infrared rangers, servos, special 4mm omnidirectional roller wheels. (Even if you’re buying the kit, the explanations will get you comfortable with this stuff.)

Then, it’s on to assembly. The authors assume you’re assembling from scratch, but folks who’ve purchased the “easy,” partly assembled kit can hop aboard partway through. Relax: there are lots of pictures. Most Palm robots are built atop the Palm III or V, but there’s a full chapter on interfacing to the Palm VII and even the Handspring Visor, which you can get dirt-cheap nowadays.

Software’s covered in detail (and you’ll find loads of it on CD-ROM). The authors also introduce their own Palm Robot Programmer, a point-and-click tool that writes your code for you: great for beginners. Prefer to write your own? There’s coverage of programming Palm robots with Basic, C, Java -- even TEA, the language of Acroname’s Brainstem controller.

The authors show how to extend your robot with additional sensors and output devices. Finally -- since you’ve still got a working Palm -- they look at some cool robot-themed software to run on it.

The Ultimate Palm Robot: eminently doable, highly enjoyable. Bill Camarda

Bill Camarda is a consultant, writer, and web/multimedia content developer. His 15 books include Special Edition Using Word 2000 and Upgrading & Fixing Networks for Dummies, Second Edition.

Library Journal

Trying to attract more teens and gadget freaks to your library? Try adding these intriguing guides to PDA robotics. Ultimate leads owners of nearly any Palm OS PDA through the process of transforming it into a functional robot, with the addition of some inexpensive parts and free software. The CD includes several of these applications and utilities; two chapters are devoted to instructions on writing additional programs. Plentiful figures and clear step-by-step instructions and suggestions make this a useful choice for all libraries. (Graduate students at Carnegie Mellon University developed the prototype for the Palm robot discussed here.) PDA Robotics covers building homemade robots that integrate either a Windows or Palm OS PDA, allowing users to control their PDA robot remotely through these devices' infrared wireless ports. Step-by-step instructions and figures make this a solid guide for electronics hobbyists who want more creative control over their robot. Much more technical than Ultimate, this is appropriate for larger libraries. Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.