My high school is starting a robotics club next school year, and we need some info on getting started. The robots will be (hopefully) competing in the USFirst competition ( www.usfirst.com ). If you know of any other competitions we should look at, tell us please.
What I want to know:
As far as sponsors, we plan to ask Office Depot and Radio Shack. What other companies in Southern CA are good prospects? How much money do you think we should shoot for our first year? We were thinking around $1,000 if we can swing it.
What are good places to buy the components, such as motors, sensors, and electronics?
We know a bit about electronics, but not enough robot-specific. What is a good way to control motors? From reading posts here, an H-bridge looks like a good project. What about MOSFETs? Would either of these allow for speed control?
A PIC microcontroller seems a good choice for a robot's brain, but there are so many of them, which one should we get?
Any good info on physical construction is appreciated, since we only have experience with lego robots. We should have access to an arc welder if all goes according to plan.
Any helpful suggestions for some beginners would be really appreciated.
Thanks!
Edit: We don't want to make a single robot for that competition, we want to make as many as we can. One project suggested that we hope to do is a line-following robot.
What I want to know:
As far as sponsors, we plan to ask Office Depot and Radio Shack. What other companies in Southern CA are good prospects? How much money do you think we should shoot for our first year? We were thinking around $1,000 if we can swing it.
What are good places to buy the components, such as motors, sensors, and electronics?
We know a bit about electronics, but not enough robot-specific. What is a good way to control motors? From reading posts here, an H-bridge looks like a good project. What about MOSFETs? Would either of these allow for speed control?
A PIC microcontroller seems a good choice for a robot's brain, but there are so many of them, which one should we get?
Any good info on physical construction is appreciated, since we only have experience with lego robots. We should have access to an arc welder if all goes according to plan.
Any helpful suggestions for some beginners would be really appreciated.
Thanks!
Edit: We don't want to make a single robot for that competition, we want to make as many as we can. One project suggested that we hope to do is a line-following robot.