How To Build Any Robot In 4 Steps
By: Ahmet Tunga Bayrak
Tags: Robotics, Vex, Technology, Designer, Mechanics

How To Build Any Robot In 4 Steps

Maybe you’re wishing to star on a robot fighting television show one day, or maybe you just want a new hobby, but for all kinds of reasons robotics is a fascinating industry for tech lovers — and one that’s not too difficult for complete beginners to get started with. Ahmet Tunga Bayrak Follow May 20, 2020 · 4 min read

Before building your robot your purpose must be clear so that you can do all other steps more awarely. And you can visualise what type of robot you want to build. Here we will be listing 4 basic steps to build the robot of your dreams or just for the competition. But before starting we would like to mention that you can adopt the steps as freely as you want to your reach purposes.

Step 1: Research

This is the first step you should take if you want to build your ideal robot. As you can understand this step is basically doing research to maximize your understanding of the topic. For instance if you are preparing for a robotics competition you may choose to do research about the map your robot is going to perform. Having a deep knowlegde of the environment your robot will perform is crucial. And in addition to that observing other robotic solutions people have found for your competition might be an option. This includes watching youtube videos and doing interviews with other teams

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Step 2: Have a prototype

You might say, is it very important to build a prototype? Or I have already done enough research, isn’t it time to do my robot now? But the answer is a definite No! Because having a prototype gives you an opportunity to visualise how your robot will work. But there are some vital tips about the prototypes you are going to make. First of all you must keep your design simple to adjust changes. Then your prototype should contain the least amount of part as possible not to have something too complex. Finally your prototype should resemble the robot your planning to build. The similar designs are not going to cause catastrophic problems in your journey to build the robot of your dreams.

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Step 3: Calibration Process

Now, this step is one of the most mistaken and important steps among others. We want accuracy in our robots right; we would not want our robot to hit every corner of the table. To pursue an accuracy calibration process draws our attention. After having a prototype which looks similar to our main robot the time for getting more serious has come. Now we will do small calculations and careful observations to modify our prototype accordingly. The calculations we do will lead us to build the most suitable robot for our task. We can give adjusting the levels our light sensor reads as an example if we are working on some sort of line following robot or any robot including light sensor.

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Step 4: Final Build

After our carefully done calibrations and our prototype we will build our robot according to the data we have in our hands. Our prototype allows us to do changes on it so now we will add more parts to our prototype to strengthen its structure. Our final design will contain more complex structures to do the missions. The key to build the final version of our robot is to take lessons from the previous steps. Some people directly jump to the 4th step without considering doing research, having a prototype and calibration. But that way people have no clue how close they are to the optimum design. To have satisfying results you have better to follow the steps without passing one.