Clue-ish
Let's get started with the steps of how robots are made.
First of all, you need to decide what your robot would do. Giving a robot a goal defenitely makes it more fun to make, so you'll have to decide what your robot will do or what you want your robot to do. Always remember, there should be some use of it. If you just make a robot that moves fron and back, it's worthless. So decide what your robot can do and give it a goal. For example you want your robot to detect the dirty items in your room, pick it up and put it in its bag. So here you're giving it a goal to clean your room and you've decided that the robot would be having a sort of hand, that can pickup things and put it in the bag.
Similarly, decide what your robot can do. Some examples are given below. Double Click on the picture to view.
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The robots which I have mentioned up here, are just simple robots which can be used for people who start learning robotics. These robots of course do not help humans in any ways. They just give a start for the beginners. Well If you are planning to make a robot which has many features and can do something usefull for people then you may still read this tutorial, Since this tutorial is for making any robot in this world. Whatever robot you make, it's a must to follow these steps for a successfull robot.
Okay, now you've decided what your robot can do. You've given it some goal. Lets proceed to the next step
1
4
Design your robot
Robot
Now you should know how your robot will be made or how your robot looks. You need to find if there will be any problem in making the robot for example the measurements, If you directly(practically) make your robot at first, if there is a problem in the size, you can't sort it at that moment, you need to first plan and design how your robot looks and the sizes of each components in your robot. If you design your robot and know the exact sizes then you will not find any problem when you are practically making the robot.
You can either draw it in a paper, make a 3d model, make a structure with some clay or something. A blueprint paper is often used for professional uses since it's having graph like patttern where in it is more easy to draw the robot which you want to make. A blueprint paper looks like this :-
Having an idea of how your final product would look like is very important in making a robot since it makes everything easier in the construction process. Some things which you need to keep in mind during the designing are :-
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You need to know how big your robot is going to be.
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What parts you are going to use during the construction.
You need to take this into cinsideration since you can't use something weighing 10 kg for a very small sized robot with a small motor. You should use something suitable for the size of your robot.
2
Choose your robot brain
IMP
A robot brain is the most important feature of a robot. As we know humans can't do anything without a brain since it controlls everything, similarily robots also need a brain to controll their body parts. These artificial brains used to controll the robots are known as microprocessors or microcontrollers. The microcontrollers is very complicated to deal with. It has many circuits inside it. As we know each part of our body i.e..hands, legs are connected to the brain, each part of the robots body i.e.. motors, sensors are connected to the microcontroller. A microcontroller looks like this
Arduino Uno
The Arduino uno is one of the best microcontrollers by the Arduino. It has 14 digital input output pins, which means 7 different devices like led bulbs, motors, servos,etc can be connected to the microcontroller. There is a usb cable which can be connected from the microcontroller to the computer, which is programmed. For example if we program and led to blink 2 times in a second and then, we connect an led to on of the digital pins, the led blinks 2 times in a second. Similarily any such device can be controlled.
How a microcontroller works
Let's take an example of an LED. You want the led to blink twice.
Connect the led to the microcontroller. How to connect will be mentioned in the manual when you buy the microcontroller.
Plug in the usb cable to the microcontroller and the other end to the usb slot in your computer. When you buy the microcontroller, you will get a CD which has a programming software, where you can program anything you want. Some of the programming languages commonly used are C and BASIC. If you know programming in these languages, then you can easily program your robot or you can even download the program from the Internet.
Once you've typed your programs, click the upload button and the commands will get uploaded to the microcontroller. After you upload it, you can see that the LED blinks twice.
Here's a video in youtube about how this works.
There are many other microcontrollers. Some of them are mentioned below.
 picaxe project boardA PICAXE microcontroller is a Microchip PIC microcontroller that has been preprogrammed with the PICAXE bootstrap code. The bootstrap code enables the microcontroller to be reprogrammed without the need for an (expensive) conventional programmer, making the whole download system a very low-cost simple serial cable! |  arduino unohe Arduino Uno is a microcontroller board based on the ATmega328 microchip. It has 14 digital input/output pins (of which 6 can be used as PWM outputs), 6 analog inputs, a 16 MHz crystal oscillator, a USB connection, a power jack, an ICSP header, and a reset button. It contains everything needed to support the microcontroller; simply connect it to a computer with a 1.5m USB Cable Type A to B or power it with an Wall Adapter Power Supply - 9VDC 650mA or DFRobot 7.4V Lipo 2200mAh Battery (Arduino |  seeedstudio microcontrollerThe Seeedstudio Seeeduino Mega Microcontroller is for small form factor, flexibility and functionality comes Seeeduino Mega - derived from Arduino Mega it harnesses the power of ATmega2560 to spice up your project building experience. |
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 DFRobot Romeo microcontrollerThe DFRobot Romeo All-in-one Microcontroller (ATMega 328) is an all-in-One Arduino compatible microcontroller especially designed for robotics applications. The Romeo benefits from the Arduino open source platform, it is supported by thousands of open source codes, and can easily be expanded with Arduino Shields. The integrated 2 way DC motor driver and wireless socket allows you to start your project immediately without the need for an additional motor driver or wireless shield. |  PIC micro-controller boardTo easily study and develop all series of PIC Microcontroller's, only a set of PIC-A demo system and a computer are needed. Based on programming functions, abundant on-board hardware resources, flexible expansion, free resource distribution, and ICSP download function for customer target board, PIC-A can not only satisfy the demands of a beginner in Microcontroller study, but also meet the requirements of engineers in development of Microcontroller. |
Okay by now you might have decided your robots brain. Beware take a wise decision in selecting your robot brain. Let's move on to the next step.
3
Decide what body parts you are going to use
If you are making an obstacle avoiding robot, then you should know what type of sensors are needed. They are ultrasonic sensors.
Some of the sensors which you may need are given below.
 sharp Ir range sensorRead the distance of the object in front of your robot. The Sharp GP2Y0A21YK0F IR Range Sensor - 10cm to 80cm takes a continuous distance reading and reports the distance as an analog voltage with a distance range of 10cm (~4") to 80cm (~30"). The interface is 3-wire with power, ground and output. This sensor requires a SIRC-01 Sharp GP2 IR Sensor Cable - 8" . Features: • Less influence on the color of reflective objects, reflectively • Line-up of distance output/distance judgment type • Detect |  Line following sensor (DF)It is a sensor used in robots to detect a line. If you want your robot to move by following a line, then this sensor is used. The DFRobot Line Tracking Sensor for Arduino is the new generation of line tracking sensor to be your robot's powerful copilot all the way. It will guide your robot by telling white and black quickly and correctly, via TTL signal. |  mini photocell light sensorThe Mini Photocell Light Sensor is a very small photocell. A photocell changes (also called a photo detector, CdS or photoconductive cell) resistance depending on the amount of light it is exposed to. These little sensors make great ambient light triggers |
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 parallax ping ultrasonic-sensorThe Parallax PING Ultrasonic Sensor provides a low-cost, precise and non-contact distance measurement. This sensor is perfect for applications that require you to perform measurements between moving or stationary objects. Apart from the robotics applications it is also very popular in security systems or as an infrared replacement. The activity status LED and the economic use of 1 I/O pin makes it an efficient and effective product. |
You'll have to decide what type of motors, gears, servos you are going to use. You can't use a small motor for a very heavy robot, since it can hardly move. So you need to get appropriate motors, gears and servos according to the weight. You can google the different types of motors.
As you learnt in clue-less, you need to get a good robot base to keep all the components of your robot. You need to get a firm or hard base for heavy robots. If you want to know about the robot bases go back to clue-less.
Aluminium
You need to see how to fix the components on the base. That is, the components of a robot should be fixed to it's base, or else it may jump out while it moves. For example a battery, it isn't just over if you keep the battery on the base when it's moving. So you must find things to fix them on to the base.
Some of the items which can be used are given below.
 hot gluea hot glue gun is often used in robots . It keeps the component very firm. Once the glue has dried, it is very very strong. It is very cheap and readily available in the markets. |  Double side tapeDouble sided tape is also used in making robots, it's a lot handy, easy to use, cheap and readily available. It is recommended since it the glue is very very strong. |
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Now you've got everything and you've planned everything for making your robot. Now that falls is the practical work. You need to be really carefull here, without making any mistakes. If I've not mentioned then you should have a diagram of how the connections are to make your robot. This plan and work helps you to make your robot in a more easier way. So now that you know the connections and have all the parts, place all the parts on the table and also the base. You've aldredy designed how the robot looks so just take all the components and place them on the base.
You'll have to make sure the robot is going to be compact like the picture below
Look at the picture above, the yellow plate is the base and the things on it are the components. Here all the combonents are kept close to each other and they are compact, so it stays there in a better way. These are some points you must remember while designing the robot.
If you are making a robot, you must make sure that it doesn't shake while moving. In some robots the robot kepps going up and down like a sea-saw, so you must find a solution for this. Look at the picture below.
It moves to and fro like a sea-saw, so to solve this you can fix another wheel like the one given below.
Such things should be planned while designing your robot.
The next part of designing is the connections, If you are planning to make a common robot like a line-following or an obstacle avoiding robot, then you can easily know about the connections from our tutorials. But if you are planning to make a different type of robot, then you must draw the diagram of the circuit and keep it ready so that you won't have any difficulties while practically making it.
5
The practical work
See if the sizes of the components are correct and check if they are fitting on the base as per you have planned.
After placing them on the base, if you think the sizes are good and the robot would look good if you place it in such a way, then it's time to fix them on the base. Look at the picture below.
Use double sided tape or hot glue and stick them on to the base. Press them really hard and make sure it get's firm.
Similarily place and fix all your parts on the base and keep them ready.
5
Wiring
It's pretty simple from here, since you know how wiring works and the different types of wires used.
You should be having the diagram of the wiring circuits, follow the same steps and just do the wiring, make sure that all the parts are connected to the brain of the robot, which is the microcontroller. If you want to know how you connect it to the microcontroller, click the button below which says 'link'. The connections in different microcontrollers vary.
One thing you should remember is that you must give sufficient battery power for the robot to run. It is always preffered to have one battery for the motors, sensors, etc, and a seperate battery to power up the microcontroller. That is, make sure the microcontroller and the components are powered seperately. Switches can be used to turn on and off the microcontroller.
Link
So now you have connected the robot, everything is ready and the only task left is that the robot has to move and do the work
Here I'll be teaching about arduino microcontrollers. I preffer you to hit the link since it is a very important part of wiring.
6
Programming
This is one of the important steps of making robots. Everything what the robot does falls on this step. In programming, you write programs like move front, do this do that,,,etc..etc.. But the programs you write will be in a different language. BASIC and C are two different languages that are commonly used in programming. The type of programs depend on the type of microcontroller you have.
Whenever you buy a microcontroller, you get a usb cable and a cd with it. With the USB cable, you can connect the microcontroller to the computer. The CD will be having a software, which is the programming software. In this software, you type the commands or programmes and then upload it to the microcontroller.
Once you have uploaded it to the microcontroller, the microcontroller performs the action of what you have given it.
In most of the common robots, you can find the program code online and download it and then upload it.
In our robot tutorials, you can download the robot code.
After getting the program code, connect the microcontroller to the pc and upload the code.
Microcontroller
UPLOADING
If you have finished uploading, your robot is ready to go. If your robot is working, congragulations on your completion of the clue-ish tutorial. For learning more about this and to make professional robot, see our clued-up tutorial.
I picked up some good
youtube videos of some robots
If you are done with clue-ish, then now you know how to make robots. Visit our robotics maker to make a robot.
Here, in clued up, you will learn to make professional robots.
Note
This page is not available now. It may take a few months to get it done.
Hi and Welcome to the clue-ish tutorial. I hope you know about the basics of robotics, the components used, etc.. If not get back to Clule-less tutorial. In this tutorial, we will learn about the method of how robots are made, or how they should be made.
THE PARTS......
Robots have a lot of parts, different sensors, motors, microcontrollers, etc. Below are some components, each of them which you can buy and connect it to your robot.
SENSORS
LIGHTING
RF MODULES
source
CONTROL SYSTEMS
motor controllers
EFFECTORS
