Design Your Own Robot:
Introduction

Robots have long been part of the popular imagination. Most people have some vague ideas about robots from having read about them in science fiction stories or seeing them in movies, on television, and elsewhere.

Here in the Design Your Own Robot online exhibit, we provide an introduction to robotics. By designing a robot and reading the accompanying materials, you can learn more about how robots work and what they do. You can also find out how robots are being used:

• to go where humans cannot
• to do repetitious and boring tasks
• for quick and accurate assembly tasks
• in recreational settings.

Design Your Own Robot allows you to design and construct robots to accomplish six tasks. As you engage with this interactive, you will learn something about the elements of robot design. When you are finished building each robot, you can link to a Web site showing a robot similar to the one you've built but operating in a real-world setting. There are two ways to run the interactive:
1. You can run the online interactive (this requires the Shockwave plug-in).
2. You can download an executable file and run it locally on own computer.
    Windows version (2406 KB)
    Mac version (1042 KB)

Although you can explore this gallery and its accompanying materials in any order you wish, we suggest you begin with the road maps we've created to guide your experience. These are tailored for teachers, parents, and other visitors.