When I was young I enjoyed designing and building electronic devices. Rather than dismantling each project when I moved on to the next one I decided to document them as construction articles for hobby magazines. Here are three examples:
Probability Anomaly Detector
Is it possible to influence physical things by the power of thought? Using the Probability Anomaly Detector described in this article it may be possible to provide evidence that mind can affect matter.
Practical Electronics, February 1975
https://randrewrussell.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/probability-anomaly-detector.pdf
Moon Landing Game
At the controls of this game you can land your own space ship on the Moon and test your skill and timing by guiding the rocket to a safe landing before the fuel runs out.
Practical Electronics, November 1978
https://randrewrussell.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/PE-Nov-1978-Moon-Landing-Game-small.pdf
Dual Line Game
Play this game of strategy against the machine. Your aim is to complete a line from top to bottom of the board. The machine tries to block your moves and form a blue line from right to left. The machine selects its move based on the maximum voltage appearing in a network of resistors.
Everyday Electronics, May 1980
https://randrewrussell.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Dual-line-game-scan.pdf
The original Practical Electronics and Everyday Electronics have undergone a number of changes. Today, the successor of those magazines is also named Practical Electronics and I thank the current editor and publisher Matt Pulzer for permission to reproduce my articles that appeared in those magazines.
Later, as I became more involved with robotics research, I found there were few professional journals covering this area so I published some early articles in the hobby press.
Closing the Sensor-Computer-Control Loop
This feature article in Robotics Age describes the use of whisker sensors to allow a robot to sense and manipulate its environment (Hence the magazine cover art)
Robotics Age | The Journal of Intelligent Machines, April 1984
https://archive.org/details/RoboticsAge198404
Many of my later robotics publications can be accessed online.
Some of my robots:
- Have touch-sensitive skin and whiskers
- Burrow through the ground to find chemical leaks
- Follow chemical trails by licking or sniffing the ground
- Make and follow heat trails
- Change their body shape
- Learn from their interaction with their environment
- Communicate using air vortices (similar to smoke rings)
- Heat their bodies to help detect and follow airbourne chemicals
- Use chemical sounding (detecting obstacles by releasing chemicals)
Use the search term ‘R Andrew Russell’ in your favourite search engine to find out more.
I have also published two books on aspects of robot sensing.
Robot Tactile Sensing
Out of print
Prentice Hall, 1990, ISBN: 0-13-781592-1
Odour Detection by Mobile Robots
World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd. 1999, ISBN: 981023791X
And more recently…
How to 3D Print a WRIGGLE BOT
Build a novel light-seeking mobile robot using a 3D printer and soldering iron!
https://randrewrussell.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Robot-Mag-article-small.pdf