Expert: George Moustris - 12/2/2009

Question
QUESTION: Anyways I always wanted to create my own simple robot. I am in highschool and I have 2 year experience in java. I am a beginner at c and c++. And I also have experience in true basic. Anyways I want to know if there is a site or somewhere where I could by a robot that is not expensive. Like from 50 to 100 or 200 dollars that I can program to tell it what to do. And I also want to know if there is a book on how to program robots and the instructions on how to build one or the whole process. I figured you might be able to help since you probably have done various projects with robots. I just love robots and I am curious. thanks.

ANSWER: Hi Ari,

you can try lego Mindstorms (http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/default.aspx). It even comes with its own language. Mindstorms is a rather popular platform for toy robots. You could give it a try.

Best
G.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thanks for the tip. However are there robot that can can be programmed in c,c++, or java. Because I just think It would put my knowledge of java in practice. And also robots that cost a little bit cheaper

Answer
well, there are robots that can be programmed in c/c++ or java but as far as i know, they cost 8000E+, depending on the type of the robot. If you want simple (toy) robots, i would again suggest mindstorms. There may be some other programmable cheap robots, but i dont really know any because their capabilities are severely limited (at least for our applications).

Best
G.