Linux Robotics: Programming Smarter Robots [Paperback]

I've been looking forward to Mr. Newman's book since his postings earlier last year on a robotics forum. I find the subject of incorporating a mini-itx computer with the Linux operating system into robots fascinating and I want to do the same. From this book, I understand he has working robots using this configuration. I'm sure I could learn a lot from Mr. Newman on this subject. I wish this book had provided insight into the pitfalls, tricks and details that a Microsoft Windows user could benefit from to accomplish his same results with Linux. I feel this book falls too short on the Linux content as implied by the book's current title. This would otherwise be a good book if it were renamed.

I found the mention of Linux related topics on approximately 25 out of 155 pages in this book. This is excluding the 119 pages of Java source code in Appendix A.

Chapter 1. Mentions Linux on 9 of 25 pages where the author describes in general terms that he is using Gentoo Linux and describes generalized reasons why you might want to use Linux.

Chapter 2. I didn't find any mention of Linux.

Chapter 3. Mentioned Linux on 3 of 15 pages. The author describes in general terms that a Linux motherboard can be a master node on the network. He discusses using USB devices with Linux.

Chapter 4. Mentioned Linux on 3 of 16 pages. He revealed that Linux is not a real-time operating system. Motherboards using the FTDI chipset seem to better support Linux. The author stated that he had to write a USB driver for Linux but gave no detailed information.

Chapter 5. I didn't find any mention of Linux.

Chapter 6. Mentioned Linux on 3 of 10 pages. In this chapter he describes where he found text to speech source code.

Chapter 7. Mentioned Linux on 1 of 15 pages. He mentions that some high-level open source vision systems are easier to work with under Linux than others. Another general comment was about video drivers for Linux.

Chapter 8. I didn't find any mention of Linux.

Chapter 9. Mentions Linux on 2 of 8 pages. He describes Joone as a nice Neural Network Interface that works under Windows and Linux. He admits that he runs his on a Windows laptop but it could run on Linux.

Chapter 10. Mentions Linux on 5 of 17 pages. The author's wireless Linksys network card is not part of the Linux kernel but is supported in Gentoo. This chapter makes other general comments regarding Linux, WiFi, and NFS.

I don't fault the author for this book; other materials in this book are of value to some readers. It makes a good introductory book for someone interested in learning about robotics topics. I respect Mr. Newman for his contributions to the robotics forums.

I do however fault Tab Books for the title and promotional material surrounding this book. I'll be wary of their books in the future. Perhaps a more appropriate title would be "My Robot Uses Linux" or "Java Robotics". This is not a how-to book on creating your own "Linux Robotics" projects.

It is fare to say Mr. Newman is very competent programming and using Linux. The one star rating has more to do with content and publishing rather than a knock on Mr. Newman. It was obvious he was under time constraints and that this was his first book. He spends more time talking about features that are not working yet or that he wants to implement, than the process to build the robot in his book. The majority of the book is short descriptions without depth. The title and the table of contents are very unreflective of the text contained in the book. The book has 155 pages of "content" and 120 pages of Appendix. The code in the 119 pages of Appendix A while well written could have been included on a CD and much more detail added to the book. It reads, looks and is a rush job. It is clear Mr. Newman has skills and a firm grasp of Robotics and Linux. It is also very clear that this TAB book is a bust. I returned the book. If you are looking for an in-depth Linux and Robotics book then you are much better off with Open-Source Robotics and Process Control Cookbook: Designing and Building Robust, Dependable Real-time Systems

By Lewin Edwards. I bought this at the same time I bought Mr. Newman's book. I also own Lewin Edwards first book.

Embedded System Design on a Shoestring

I consider both of Lewin Edwards works mentioned above as must have books.

Building Robots has become a fascination to a lot of people, including Mr. Newman, the author of this book. His robots are a long ways from C3PO. He basically build a robot mounted on wheels that has an awful lot of electronics. But then again he is including a lot of features in his design.

There are lot of ways to implement the controller. In this case he uses a small size but standard PC motherboard. On this board he runs a Linux operating system. In spite of the title, this is not really a book on how to use Linux to control robots. He just happens to use Linux for his robot because it is cheaper than Windows.

Most of the programming information he gives is the form of Java progrms that will handle the various devices (such as vision) that he wants built into his robots. In fact, much of the book, too much in fact, is given over to code. The code is available on line, reprinting it here in the book is pretty boring reading.

The book is a good introduction on how to design and build a robot using standard components. Here's how you can get started.