Robot Builders Source Book - Gordon McComb Episode 1 Part 5 doc

Free downloadable PCB layout program for Makers of the WinDraft, WinBoard, Ivex Spice circuit board software.. A number of popular PCB layout software for-mats are supported, including E

 +61 2 9975 7710

 +61 2 9975 7720

 http://www.microcode.com/

Publishers of the CircuitMaker 2000 Virtual Electronics

Lab software, allowing you to design, simulate, and

out-put printed circuit board designs Student versions anddemos are available for download

Breadboard Your Circuits!

Prior to soldering together any electronic circuit, you should

test it with a solderless breadboard This allows you to

con-firm that circuit works, and it lets you experiment before you

commit it to a permanent circuit board Solderless

bread-boards consist of a series of holes with internal contacts

spaced one-tenth of an inch apart, just the right spacing for

ICs You plug in ICs, resistors, capacitors, transistors, and

20- or 22-gauge wire in the proper contact holes to create

your circuit

Solderless breadboards come in many sizes For the

most flexibility, get a double-width board, one that can

accommodate at least 10 ICs A typical double-width model is shown in the figure Smallerboards can be used for simple projects; circuits with a high number of components

require bigger boards While you're buying a breadboard, purchase a set of prestrippedwires The wires come in a variety of lengths and are already stripped and bent for use inbreadboards The set costs $5 to $7, but you can bet the price is well worth it

Tips to Reduce Static

Static shock—like the kind you get after scuffling your feet on the carpet and touching adoorknob—can destroy sensitive electronic circuits Poof! There goes weeks of work onyour latest robot Here are some simple steps to minimize static

• Wear low-static clothing and shoes Wear natural fabrics, such as cotton or wool Avoid

wearing polyester and acetate clothing

• Use an antistatic wrist strap The wrist strap grounds you at all times and prevents

static buildup

• Before touching the robot, discharge the static Go ahead: Touch the doorknob (or

other metal) before picking up the robot

• Avoid playing with your robots on nylon carpets Nylon builds up a static charge in most

everything Wood, title, or linoleum floors are better So are polypropylene (Olefin) pets, which don't build up as much static

car-• If possible, avoid the use of acrylic plastic for the body of the robot Of all plastics,

acrylics tend to build up the most static charge If you want to use plastic, opt for ABS,PVC, or styrene

• During construction of the robot, ground your soldering iron A grounded iron not only

helps prevent damage from electrostatic discharge, but it lessens the chance of a badshock, should you accidentally touch a live wire

• Use component sockets When building your projects that use ICs, install sockets first.

This reduces the chance of damaging static when soldering, but it also makes it easier

to replace zapped ICs!

A typical electronics breadboard They come in various sizes and styles.

Altium Limited / Protel 202839

Protel is high-end printed circuit board design

soft-ware Intended for the electronics professional, the

software supports numerous advanced features:

multi-sheet, hierarchical schematic entry; mixed-mode

simu-lation; PLD design; rules-driven board layout;

shape-based autorouting; signal integrity simulation;

integrated document management; and design team

Home page for EAGLE Layout Editor Freeware “lite”

version available Worldwide distributors

SEE ALSO PCBPRO:

http://www.pcbpro.com/

13626 S Freeman Rd

Mulino, OR 97042USA

 (503) 829-9108

 (503) 829-5482

 http://www.pcbpro.comECD (Electronic Controls Design) provides PCB pro-duction in small quantities or large

PCBpro offers large quantities of boards and a variety

of lead times suited for production runs Options areavailable for board thickness, copper weight, number oflayers, gold fingers, and testing

SEE ALSO PCBEXPRESS:

Custom (and proprietary) PCB layout software for

cre-ating short-run PCB boards through ExpressPCB

serv-ice Free downloadable PCB layout program for

Makers of the WinDraft, WinBoard, Ivex Spice circuit

board software Together these programs are used to

design the schematic, test it, and produce a circuit

board layout The board layout uses industry standard

output files so that you can have it machine produced

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Electronics-PCB-Production

This section contains sources for companies that

pro-duce printed circuit boards (PCBs) using standard

automation files you provide to them These

automa-tion files are prepared using compatible PCB design

software (see the previous section,

Electronics-PCB-Design) The majority of the companies listed here will

produce short runs of PCBs-two or three boards-for a

minimum setup fee The more boards you order, the

less each board costs, because it is the setup fee that

represents the single largest cost in short-run PCB

pro-duction

Also listed here are materials for producing your ownPCBs in your workshop, typically using a laser or ink-jetprinter to prepare PCB artwork on transfer film

Unit 3, 1112- 40th Ave NECalgary, AB

T2E 5T8Canada

Cimarron Technology, Inc 204200

1611 S UticaPMB 276Tulsa, OK 74104USA

pro-• SO8 to 8-pin DIP adapter

• SOT-23 to 6-pin DIP adapter

• Narrow/wide SO to 28-pin DIP adapter

The company also sells some unique “ProtBlock” made circuits mounted on miniature boards The (sur-face-mounted) components are not included, so thatyou can design your own circuit using the parts and val-ues that best fit your needs One interesting product isthe amplifier module using a common 8-pin op-amp IC

electronics-pcb-production 145

Dealing with Failures

Failure design is a type of engineering that assumes nondestructive errors in a system

that self-corrects for problems In many cases, the specific nature of the problems is notknown ahead of time Software programs that “catch” unknown errors before they causeearly termination of a program are a good example of simple failure design

Knowing that things will always go wrong can help in reviewing the problems inherent inrobotics Failure is common in all forms of engineering, and building robots is no excep-tion As these failures occur, you’ll learn from them, and you’ll build better robots

Robots can fail in any number of ways: mechanical, electrical, or programming

You can use the “pull test” to determine if your robot construction methods are sound.Once you have attached something to your robot—using glue, nuts and bolts, or what-ever system—give it a good tug If it comes off, the construction isn’t good enough Lookfor a better way

Electrical Failure

Electronic failures are not as obvious as mechanical ones Unless your circuit has gone up

in smoke, it may not be readily apparent what’s wrong with it Too, circuits that functionedproperly in a solderless breadboard during the early design phase may no longer workonce you’ve soldered the components in a permanent circuit, and vice versa There aremany reasons this can happen, including mistakes in wiring, odd capacitive effects, evenvariations in tolerances due to heat transfer

• Circuit never worked Review your wiring and make necessary repairs Double-check

the accuracy of the schematic or drawing you’re working from Is there a typo?

• Circuit worked before, and now doesn’t Look for a short circuit or a broken wire Try

working backward to find the problem For example, apply power directly to the

motors If the motors work, you know they’re okay, so try next to manually control

(using jumper wires) the H-bridge motor driver circuit you’re using If the motors turn,then the H-bridge is fine, and it’s time to look for problems in the microcontroller or

Programming Failure

More and more robots use computers or microcontrollers as central processing units,

and these are operated by software you give them If the software contains programming

Makes and sells a PCB transfer system; uses

laminator-like machine to fuse artwork (prepared by laser

printer) onto copper clad

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Easy Printed Circuit Board

http://www.fullnet.com/u/tomg/gooteepc.htm

Well-researched and detailed article on using a laser

printer and standard white paper to create transfer

sheets for making your own printed circuit boards

SEE ALSO PCBPRO:

http://www.pcbpro.com/

13626 S Freeman Rd

Mulino, OR 97042USA

 (503) 829-9108

 (503) 829-5482

 http://www.pcbpro.comECD (Electronic Controls Design) provides PCB pro-duction in small quantities or large

PCBpro offers large quantities of boards and a variety

of lead times suited for production runs Options areavailable for board thickness, copper weight, number oflayers, gold fingers, and testing

electronics-pcb-production

146

bugs, the robot may not work at all or it may work only erratically There are three basickinds of programming “bugs”; in all cases, the fix is to review the program, find the error,and revise the code

• Compile bugs are caused by bad syntax Look for misspelled commands, missing

characters (end-of-line semicolons in a C program are a good example), or bad matting Programming languages that compile your code will usually flag compile timebugs, but may still let you execute the program on your robot Be sure to first fix the

for-problem before you transfer the program to the robot’s microcontroller or computer

• Run-time bugs are caused by a disallowed condition A run-time bug isn’t caught by

the compiler Rather, it occurs when the microcontroller/computer attempts to run theprogram A typical run-time bug is using a data type that is too small to hold the valueexpected of it Example: A byte data type holds values up to 255; a run-time bug mayoccur if you attempt to store a value of 256 (in which case you’d chose a word data

type, which can hold numbers to 65,535)

• Logic bugs are when a program doesn’t work the way you expected it to These are

caused by improper math, incorrect assumptions of how sensors interact with the ronment, or any other conditions based on false information

envi-SEE ALSO PCBEXPRESS:

Custom (and proprietary) PCB layout software for

cre-ating short-run PCB boards through ExpressPCB

serv-ice Free downloadable PCB layout program for

PCB layout service, offering low-cost prototypes The

service combines jobs, based on size and type, to save

money A number of popular PCB layout software

for-mats are supported, including Eagle, Protel, and

A handy reference with advice and insights on the

process for producing a printed circuit board

Sponsored by RD Chemical

http://www.barco.com/ets/data/rs274xc.pdfAdobe Acrobat PDF file that explains the RS-274XGerber Format Fairly technical, with over 50 pages ofinfo

P.O Box 1606Palmer Lake, CO 80133USA

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Sources for soldering stations and supplies, particularlythose used for production (such as surface mount andrework and repair), are listed in this section Somecompanies listed here do not sell directly to consumers,but may provide technical information about theirproducts on their Web sites and may offer a replace-ment parts service

electronics-pcb-production 147

SEE ALSO:

Distributor/Wholesaler sections:

Additional sources for solder and tools

Test and Measurement: Additional sources for

Industrial electronics: electronic displays, tools, and

components Includes soldering stations,

high-bright-ness LEDs, chemicals, RF transmitter and receiver

Weller solder tools, wire-wrapping prototyping

prod-ucts, Xcelite hand tools

elec-The company sells electronic kits under the Amerikitbrand

x 

electronics-soldering

148

Weller WES50, from Cooper Tools.

Photo Courtesy of Cooper Tools.

150 W Carpenter Ave

Wheeling, IL 60090

USA

Elenco's SL-5 soldering station.

Photo Elenco Electronics Inc.

1547 N Trooper Rd

P.O Box 1117Worcester, PA 19490-1117USA

 (815) 625-6525

 http://www.iso-tip.com/

In addition to Trim N Vac hair clippers, personal sagers, and other household appliances, Wahl makes

mas-soldering irons and mas-soldering tools for industry Sold

WASSCO distributes production soldering materials

and supplies Offered are solder, cleaning chemicals,

abrasives, soldering tools, static control products, test

and measurement gear, and hand tools

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@ Electronics-Sound & Music

This section is an eclectic mix of products and services

for adding sound to your robot The sound may be

music or musical effects, recorded voice, speech

synthe-sis, or even speech recognition

American Musical Supply Inc 202616

best-The software, which runs under Windows, Linux, andvarious flavors of Unix, is intended for interactive appli-cations such as speech-enabled Web pages However,the company (smartly) offers the software at very lowcost for desktop use, and that would include using it toprovide your robot with a voice If your robot operatesfrom a microcontroller, you can always record littlesnips of voices for playback with electronic voice chips

Atmel: Dream Sound Synthesis

http://www.atmel.com/atmel/products/prod209.htmDatasheet for Atmel's Dream sound chips; check outSAM9773, a single-chip music synthesizer with effects It

electronics-soldering 149Kester Solder

http://www.kester.com/

Manufacturer of solder; see the Web site for spec

sheets, materials safety documents, and

informa-tion about lead-free solder

Midwest Tech Services, Inc.

http://www.midwesttech.com/

Tools and supplies for electronics production

electronics-sound & music

150

Making Your Robot Sound Off

Robots shouldn't be mute Even basic sounds and sound effects can be accomplishedusing relatively inexpensive sound-recording chips One of the best known, and mostcommon, is the ChipCorder line of digital sound recorders, now manufactured by

Winbond (You may know them from their previous owner, Information Storage Devices,

or ISD) The ChipCorder ICs are readily available to the electronics hobbyist and amateurrobot builder via a number of mail-order retailers, such as Digi-Key and Jameco

ChipCorders vary in duration of sound they can record Versions are available thatrecord from 30 seconds to 2 minutes of sound The more sophisticated chips can becontrolled via a microprocessor or microcontroller so that individual segments of soundcan be individually played back In this way, you can have (say) a minute of recordedsound, but can play back discrete portions to produce various sound effects or vocalphrases

Prices for the chips vary depending on feature and recording time, but most cost under

$15 While there are certainly other makers of sound storage/playback integrated circuits,the ChipCorder chips are by far the most widely used and among the most affordable

A rich assortment of datasheets and application notes is available for the ChipCorder

products on the Winbond Web page at http://www.winbond-usa.com/ (Winbond is

based in Taiwan, and this is their U.S Web site; however, this site contains most of theChipCorder downloadable information)

Quadravox (http://www.quadravox.com/) provides value-added circuits based on

the ChipCorder line One product is a ChipCorder prototyping board, the QV400D, thatlets you experiment with different ChipCorder variations It comes with everything youneed, including power supply and support software, to create, edit, and implementrecorded sounds on the ChipCorder IC

Voice Synthesis Text-to-Speech Internet Sites

Not long ago, integrated circuits for the reproduction of human-sounding speech werefairly common With the proliferation of digitized recorded speech, however, unlimitedspeech synthesizers have become an exception instead of the rule The companies thatmade stand-alone speech synthesizer chips either stopped their manufacture or werethemselves sold to other firms that no longer carry the old speech parts

If you plan on using recorded (mechanical or electronic) sound with your robot, youmay want to consider any of the several text-to-speech Internet sites, such as the BellLabs TTS (Text-to-Speech) project Software running on the Internet server lets you type

in the text you want to synthesize A sound file (WAV, AU, or AIFF format) is returned toyou Save the file and use it for producing a sound sample with a cassette tape or record-ing chip

There are several interactive online text-to-speech processing sites, including the lowing:

fol-AT&T Labs Natural Voices Text-to-Speech Engine

electronics-sound & music 151

is programmed serially, meaning that it's ideally suited

for use with microcontrollers and robotics, where

input/output pins are always in short supply The chip

is surface mount, however; so you'll need to make a

cir-cuit board if you want to breadboard

See also the datasheets for the SAM9707 “Integrated

Sound Studio” and the SAM9743 “Single-Chip Music

System.”

Bell Laboratories (Lucent Technologies)

http://www.bell-labs.com/project/tts/

Interactive test site for experimenting with

text-to-speech Type in text, specify how you want it to sound

(man, woman, big man, child, even a gnat!), and the

spoken speech is returned as an audio clip You can

save the audio clips to your computer If your robo

con-tains a digital sound recording chip, like those from

ISD, you can transfer the recorded voice segments to

the chip, and your creation will now have a voice

Can be slow at times, but worth it

Home of music synthesizer guru Bob Moog According

to the Web site, “We are a community of musicians,

business professionals, and technicians who work

together to bring you some of the finest electronic

music gear on today's market.” The synthesizer

prod-ucts are useful in creating recorded sound effects for

 x V

180 W Election Rd

Draper, UT 84020USA

SEE ALSO:

http://www.speakthis.com/

http://www.gyrofrog.com/theremin.htmlInformation about the Theremin electronic musicdevice

PAiA Electronics, Inc 202201

3200 Teakwood Ln

Edmond, OK 73013USA

if you're into sound and music effects Some of the kitsthat you might find useful include:

• Modular Synthesizer

• Theremax Theremin/Gestural Controller

electronics-sound & music

152

• FatMan Analog MIDI Synth

• Vocoder

• TubeHead Vacuum Tube Preamp

• Headphone Distribution Amplifier

1701 N.Greenville Ave

Ste 608Richardson, TX 75081USA

Add sound to your robots Quadravox offers a number

of application modules, including:

• QV531-MP3 player module

• QV301-Parallel control sound module

• QV306-RS232-controlled sound module

Check out their sound module prototyping boards,designed to work with the Winbond ISD series ofdigital

Model QV306m4, from Quadravox Photo Quadravox, Inc.

sound recorders In fact, much of the company's product

line is based on the ISD series ofdigital recording chips

SEE ALSO QUADRAVOX TEXT-TO-SPEECH

SYNTHESIS WHITE PAPER:

http://www.quadravox.com/qvdiph.pdf

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electronics-sound & music 153

Model QV306m1, from Quadravox Photo

RC Systems manufactures and sells text-to-speech

mod-ules, called DoubleTalk, that can be attached to

com-puters or microcontrollers Their V8600A voice

synthe-sizer is a modular text-to-speech processor that

automatically converts plain English text into a

high-quality male voice

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RC Syste,s V8600 speech synthesizer module.

Photo RC Systems, Inc.

1991 Russell Ave

Santa Clara, CA 95054-2035USA

 (408) 327-9000

 (408) 727-4748

 http://www.sensoryinc.comSensory makes and sells inexpensive voice recognitionmodules and software Popular units include the VoiceDirect 364 module (also available as a developer's kit),

as well as the SC-6x product line of speech synthesis ICs.The company also offers the Voice Extreme developer'skit (under $150), a programmable voice recognitionmodule that supports (as an optional mode) speakerindependence, meaning that no speaker training isrequired

Note that the company's Voice Direct SpeechRecognition Kit, resold by a number of online retailers,

is discontinued and has been replaced by the VoiceDirect 364

Developer's kits are available directly from the company

text-to-SoftVoice Text-to-Speech System 203758

 info@text2speech.com

 http://www.text2speech.com/

SoftVoice is speech synthesis software for Windows Theproduct is available for commercial license Says theWeb site: “Implemented as Windows DLL's, SoftVoiceTTS is a state-of-the-art expert system for the conversionofunrestricted English text to high quality speech inreal time The SoftVoice system is the most versatile inthe industry, with 20 different preset voices that the usercan quickly select according to his or her preference.”

Kits-Electronics: Circuits you put together

Retail-General Electronics: Additionalsources for unique electronics components

Retail-Science: Interesting and unusual related kits

631E Windsor Rd #8Glendale, CA 91205USA

• Digital version of classic 555

• Musical sound generator

• Programmable musical sound generator

• PWM controller

P.O Box 375, St

AlbansAL1 3GAUK

electronics-sound & music

154

 +44 (0) 1727 763700

 +44 (0) 1727 763700

 feedback@logiblocs.com

 http://www.logiblocs.com/

Logiblocs are electronic building blocks for elementary

and junior high school students They plug together to

make complete and working circuits

Manufacturers and sellers of miniature and

micro-miniature transformers, inductors, DC-DC converters,

Piezoelectric transducers, actuators, and drivers:

• Transducer elements (benders and extenders)

• Motion instruments (one- and two-axis mirror tilter,ultrasonic rotary motor)

• Electronics

• Fans and resonators

• Design and prototyping

{ Entertainment

Work and no play make Tobor a bored robot That goes

for robot builders,

too Don’t forget the entertainment side-books, movies,

and art-on robotics themes Many

of today’s best robot builders were influenced by

fic-tional robots in movies and

books-who hasn’t wanted to build their own R2-D2 after

seeing Star Wars?

The two categories that follow take a look at the

enter-tainment value of robots:

Art-Robots intended as artistic forms of expression,

rather than functional machines Includes

posters, framable art, cinema special effects,

spe-cialty magazines, “standees” (life-size cardboard

models), museums, and more

Books & Movies-The fictional side of robots, as

Science fiction and monster movie memorabilia See

listing under Toys-Robots

Toys and animation art Tin toy robots, Robby the

Robot, Star Wars and Star Trek character sets, Mr

Atomic, Gigantor, and other robot figurines Most arecollectables, and most are very expensive

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All Effects Company, Inc 203443

17614 Lahey St

Granada Hills, CA 91344USA

All Effects is perhaps best known as a mechanical specialeffects company for motion pictures and television Thecompany is headed by Eric Allard, one ofthe most cre-ative mechanical effects engineers working in the moviebusiness today His company's credits include the Johnny

5 robot from the Short Circuit films (the second of which

he coproduced), Ghostbusters, Alien Resurrection,Stuart Little, and the Energizer Bunny TV commercials



436 Highway 31 SouthAlabaster, AL 35007USA

 (205) 663-2755

 celebritystandup@aol.com

Entertainment

156

Web shopping cart for Acme Vintage Toys.

Copyright 2003 by Gordon McComb Click Here for Terms of Use.

 http://celebritystandups.com/

Standees: Star Wars (including C3PO, R2-D2, Battle

Droid), Star Trek (original and newer shows, including

Captain Kirk, Data, and Seven of Nine), Marvin the

Martian, T-2 Endoskeleton, George Jetson

Cinefex is the premier magazine for special effects in

movies and television The magazine, which comes out

four times a year, is beautifully produced in full color

Each issue concentrates on the digital, optical, and

mechanical special effects of at least one, and

some-times two or three, motion pictures or television

pro-ductions The articles are semitechnical, and most film

jargon is explained

Movies are gravitating to doing more and more special

effects using only computers, but productions with

mech-anical effects (other than explosions and car crash ups)

are still fairly common The articles on mechanical effects

work are especially notable for robot builders, and you

can learn quite a few secrets and techniques from them

Back issues are available; I recommend you thumb

through the index at the site to search for topics and

films that interest you The soldout issues are provided

as xerographic copies For these, the cover is in color,

but the articles are black and white

Los Angeles, CA 90045USA

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entertainment-Art 157

Cinefex is the leading publication for and

about special effects in movies and TV.

Movie Poster Shop, The 202766

Movie posters (original and reproduction), theater

lobby cards, standees

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Museum of Unnatural Mystery 202775

http://www.unmuseum.org/

The Web site says it best: “Welcome to the Museum of

Unnatural Mystery, a slightly bizarre, cyberspace,

sci-ence museum for all ages Are there really flying

saucers? What killed the dinosaurs? Is there something

ancient and alive in Loch Ness? The Museum takes a

scientific look at these, and other, questions.”

Some fun stuff here

Movie posters, standees, and video Check out the

Twonky Video category for thousands of unusual cult

movies, including hard-to-find 1940s through 1960s

sci-ence fiction titles

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Retrofire-Robot &

http://www.retrofire.com/

Interesting “high-tech” toys, including tin robots, space

ray guns, and more

 Info@standees.com

 http://www.standees.com/

“Standees” are cardboard cutouts offamous people, likemovie actors That includes movie robots, like Robot B-9from Lost in Space (talking and nontalking versions) and,ofcourse, Star Trek and Star Wars characters Moststandees are full size, but fold at strategic places for storage

x V { Entertainment-Books & Movies

P.O Box 4568Jackson, MS 39296USA

Amazon.com
202586

http://www.amazon.com/

The ubiquitous online retailer ofbooks and more

Separate stores sell books, DVD and VHS movies, kitchen

and household appliances, toys (online Toys'R'Us),

com-puters, software, and magazine subscriptions

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http://www.bn.com/

Barnes & Noble is the largest bookseller in the world,

with retail stores and an online e-commerce site They

have hundreds of books on robotics and other

entertainment-books & movies 159

Rad Robot Movies

These movies are out on VHS or DVD Find them at your local video store Some are sidered special interest, so they may be available only for sale and not rent

con-The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

The quintessential robot flick, and yet the robot (Gort) is only a minor character But what

a character! Tick him off and he’ll open his visor and disintegrate you with a piercing laserbeam Cool stuff

Gort was played by Lock Martin, one of the tallest actors (7’7”) ever to work in

Hollywood—first as the doorman of the Graumans Chinese Theater, then as host of a Los

Angeles children’s TV show named The Gentle Giant The Gort costume (there were two,

with laced “zippers” on the front or back, depending where the camera was placed) waslatex rubber and measured 8’2”

Despite its age, TDTESS ranks as one of the best science fiction movies ever made The

special effects are low-tech by today’s standard—the sound effect of Gort’s destructive raywas created by playing a tape backward—but the story is top-notch, and the action thrilling

From out of space a warning and an ultimatum Strange power from another planet

menaces the earth! What is this invader from another planet Can it destroy the earth?

Robot Monster (1953)

Directed by Phil Tucker, Robot Monster is one of those “so bad it’s good” movies Tucker directed a number of sex and teen exploitation films in the 1950s (including Dance Hall

Racket, written by legendary comic Lenny Bruce) This flick stars George Nader, a

popu-lar B-picture actor of the 1950s and 1960s

For whatever reason, the robot in this picture looks like a gorilla in a diving helmet,

probably because the actor playing the robot wore a gorilla suit wearing a deep-sea ing helmet The robot manages to kill off all but a half-dozen people on earth, then falls in

div-love Jeepers! Moon monsters launch attack against earth! How can science meet the

menace of astral assassins?

Entertainment-books & movies

160

Forbidden Planet (1956)

Before Leslie Nielson got silly and starred in all those Naked Gun movies, he was a ing leading man in many 1950s and 1960s movies Of his most famous is Forbidden

dash-Planet, where he and his crew of space voyagers come to fetch a scientist and his pretty

daughter and return them to Earth

Only the scientist doesn’t want to go, and besides he doesn’t need to, because he’sbuilt his very own mechanical butler, a robot named Robby Robby is polite, couldn’t hurt

a fly (his programming follows Isaac Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics, and therefore bids it), and can make smooth, aged whiskey by the gallons Needless to say, he

for-becomes a favorite of many, including the audience

An interesting story and some fine acting, but parts are a tad scary for the little kids.Robby the Robot would later make a number of guest appearances in other films, on the

Twilight Zone show, and even on the Superman television series.

Kronos (1957)

What do Kronos and mothers-in-law have in common? They both zap the energy out of

everything they come into contact with Low-budget but still engaging, Kronos the movie

is the story of an alien race that has used up all the electricity of their home planet(sounds like they’re from California) So, they send a giant robot to Earth to collect all of

our energy.

Kronos is one of many science fiction flicks that takes place predominantly in

California’s high desert—because it was so cheap for Hollywood producers to film there

To this day, whenever I drive through the Anza-Borrego or Mohave deserts of the U.S.Southwest, I get an eerie feeling Kronos is right around the next bend

Parts of Kronos are really cheesy Don’t expect multi-million-dollar special effects This

is 1957, after all, the same year Russia launched Sputnik World-destroying monster!

The Outer Limits, Vol 41: I, Robot (1963)

An episode of the original Outer Limits television series, this is an adaptation from the Isaac

Asimov short story of the same name Stars Leonard Nimoy, before he donned his pointed

ears in Star Trek The robot stands accused of murder, but is it a machine or a man? This prototypical episode of the Outer Limits was directed by Leslie Stevens, who would later turn out the movie Incubus, starring William Shatner, another Trek alumnus.

The movie is memorable on many counts, the least of which it is entirely in the Esperantolanguage! No robots, though—probably because robots don’t speak Esperanto

Westworld (1973)

Written and directed by Michael “Jurrasic Park” Crichton, Westworld explores what

hap-pens when humans put too much trust into machines It’s a story line that Crichton wouldexplore many times in his films, using various technologies that “go worng.”

Westworld is one of three “worlds” in an interactive resort for rich folks The guests arereal, but just about everything else is a machine, including the gunslingers and the hook-

ers What goes worng in Westworld is a gunbot, played deftly by Yul Brenner For some

unknown reason, the programming for Yul and the rest of the robots get scrambled (theymust be running Microsoft Windows!), and they end up killing all but one guest

There are few special effects with robot-like mechanisms, except for a fairly unrealisticshot of the inside of Yul Brenner’s head Enjoy this movie more for its “be careful what

you ask for” mid-1970s message about high-tech Westworld where robot men and

women are programmed to serve you for romance volence anything.

entertainment-books & movies 161

The Terminator (1984)

Forever frightening all of the women in the world unlucky enough to be named Sarah

Conner, The Terminator put actor Arnold Schwarzenegger on the Map of the Stars Great

effects for such a low-budget film

The Terminator robot is a cyborg: human-looking on the outside, but high-tech machine

on the inside Except for some brief shots at the beginning of the film, it’s not until the end

of the movie do we see the innards of the Terminator: chrome-plated “bones” operated

by powerful hydraulic systems In reality, “it’s only a model” (in the words of Monty

Python) No working robot was ever created for the film; what you see is a cleverly

designed puppet operated by cables It looks real enough!

The Terminator skeleton was designed by veteran Hollywood mechanical and makeupeffects artist Stan Winston Winston was also responsible for the mechanical and creature

effects for such films as Aliens, Inspector Gadget, Small Soldiers, Galaxy Quest, and

Terminator III He’s one of the best.

Short Circuit (1986)

Let’s forget the human characters in this film Please Instead, just concentrate on the

robots, designed by conceptual artist Syd Mead, and expertly crafted by effects sor Eric Allard

supervi-Briefly, Short Circuit is about a group of five battlefield robots One robot is accidentally

electrocuted, and this somehow fuses his computer, causing him to become alive Now asentient creature, this robot—referred to as Number Five—fears for his life and escapes.The rest of the movie is about Number Five being chased by the security department ofthe Big Bad Defense Company that created him

Actual working (remotely controlled) robots were created for the movie, which makes

Short Circuit one of the few films that employed real robotic actors (For some shots, bits and

pieces of the Number Five robot were controlled by cable using off-screen puppeteers.)

If you can find it, get a copy of issue 28 of the magazine Cinefex (see

http://www.cinefex.com/ for starters) This issue contains an in-depth article covering

the construction of the Short Circuit robots by Allard and his All Effects Company.

Enlightening reading Something wonderful has happened Number Five is alive!

Robot Jox (1990)

Little story but cool special effects The robots are huge, legged vehicles used in combat

death matches An early incarnation of the MechWarriors concept The ultimate killing

machine, part man, part metal.

The Iron Giant (1999)

Agree or disagree, this movie is not only one of the best robot films ever made, but also

one of the best animated pictures, ever!

The Iron Giant takes place amid the fear and suspicion of the late 1950s (1957, to be

precise) The Soviet Union had just launched Sputnik (see Kronos, above), and Americans

were sure the next “man-made moon” would contain a nuclear bomb, dropped into themiddle of their sleepy little town

Something does fall from the sky, but it’s not what folks are expecting; it’s a giant robot

sent to earth for some unknown reason The robot feeds itself by eating metal Before

you can say “pass the ketchup, please,” the hulking ‘bot becomes entangled in some

high-voltage power lines and is on the brink of destruction Enter our hero, nine-year-oldHogarth Hughes, who saves the robot and ends up becoming best pals with it