Do the Robot!

by John B. Carnett John B. Carnett

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If you've ever thought it'd be cool to make your own robot but didn't because your options were Legos (ho-hum) or fabricating one from scratch (who's got the time?), listen up: RadioShack's new Vex Robotics Design System (vexrobotics.com) is the ultimate compromise. The $300 kit contains more than 500 parts, including steel plates, motors, radio receivers and a six-channel remote. What to build? That's up to you. The manual, created at the Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Institute, is more engineering primer than instruction book, providing tasks, not plans for preconceived designs. Were working on one that can open bottles.