I asked for this forum to be created but have not posted anything…
I do have a question, but I need to do my homework before posting.
Besides it takes too long to do on ipad.
I highly recommend you get some robotics books before boring the community with your pitiful questions (afterall, an ipad user could only have pitiful questions right?) hehehe… j/k 
as far as books go though, Theory of Applied Robotics, and Probabilistic Robotics are my two favourite that i have 
Lots of nitty gritty algorithm details.
Reading a book seems too much like homework
I looked at the Amazon write ups about [italic]Theory of Applied Robotics[/italic] and [italic]Probabilistic Robotics[/italic] and did not understand anything.
I want to get started with something and quickly learn what I don’t know. That will give me a context for further study.
If only i had more time & money so i could build some robotics tutorials haha.
hmm you should start off easy on the books. Not like you need to know AI theory. Beam comes to mind and Robot Building for Beginners,Intermediate Robot Building.
name of beam book
JunkBots, Bugbots, and Bots on Wheels: Building Simple Robots With BEAM Technology
What would you like to know about robotics?
Building them? Software behind it / algorithm? Parts used?
I do not think you will get far with books. My personal favorite is trial and error ;D
Unfortunately Robert, if you’re doing trial and error on maths like Inverse Kinematics or control loops and such it’s nice to learn quickly from someone elses years of trial and error
Lots of easy things work with trial and error however.
You dont have jump in the deep end and start with inverse kinematics and PID controllers. Start small and build from that.
Youll find lots of inspiration and information at Lets Make Robots. There are about 14.000 registered members to this site (compared to the 300+ in here), so its a massive pool of information.
And we need more .NET micro framework people 
(simple) PID controllers actually aren’t that difficult. I’ll be seeing about writing a tutorial soon.
This place is great. I said I will be asking a question, and now I am getting great answers.
What will happen when I ask my question? ;D ;D
Youre building up the suspense Mike, -this question must be good
If you want to get started with something tangible quickly, get an arduino-compatible motor shield and retrofit electronics to a toy, preferably one with dual motors or tank treads. I’ve got a spy gear ATV toy that I bought for the video parts, the left over base of which is probably going to get robot brains this week. Legos work too, and there are instructions online for using a common motors with them (you just glue or double sticky tape the motor to a 2x4 plate and use heat shrink to build up the shaft to the point where a small lego pinion fits). Or you can skip the motor shield and buy continuous rotation servos (or modify them) which just need a PWM output each.
You didn’t say anything about inverse kinematics before. With this region of robots I would highly recommend books. You will have to more precise to get better suggestions?
I have been busy and have not had time to ask my question. My question will be something like “would this be a good starting setup”.
The comments so far are answering a lot of my questions. As I do research, a lot of my questions are also being answered.
I agree with start out simple. I am trying to figure out how to attach a Panda to a Ferrai.
What kind of robot are you trying to build? Rover? Arm?
I think an arm is too complex for a first project. I am looking into a tracked rover type. Speed is not a requirement.
I am thinking of a RobotShop Rover kit with base, track, motors and battery holders. Then use a Domino or Panda with component shield, and motor controller from GHI. Will also buy distance and reflective sensors.
[url]http://www.robotshop.com/robotshop-rover-arduino-tank-kit-5.html[/url]
Using the GHI stuff with a component shield makes wiring easy. I have a WiFly shield that I will be adding later for remote control.
Several years ago, while he was younger, my son was seriously into RC cars. There is an expensive RC car still in the basement. If I out grow my tracked rover, the next step would be the RC car.
I think the total expense will be less than $200, and provide for all sorts of expansion.
How does this sounds as a starting point.
arms and rovers definetly employ two different types algorithms, personally i have not done much with rover but have done quite a bit with forward and inverse kinematics. if you like trig and matrixs then ik can be fun, www.hexapodrobot.com/forum is quite a good forum for ik infomation althou all based around pic code there are some useful threads over there.
its worth noting for ik that simualtion using single line graphs in either excel or a custom graph in c# windows app can be really useful before even buying hardware.
didnt Foekie do a 3dof hex for the competion ?
I do not have a problem with inverse kinematics since I eat lots of fruits and vegetables. :-[
Lol Mike,
NUBIARN, this is the project:
(link removed)
It’s a little on ice, since I do not have much time and still waiting for the high power servos.
Mike, the idea is good. You can create a fast and easy project out of this. This should not take you long to complete.
If you have any questions left, feel free to ask
Yeah, and spend his $200 budget only on servos 