robotics newbie...

Depends on what you want to do. Want to try out something cheap but capable of keeping your interest? Look at the ProtoBot available at

It is basically a solderless breadboard on continuous rotating servos controlled by a microcontroller. The current microcontroller is a Basic Stamp, which you program in Parallax's PBASIC. However, I know that as a C programmer, you would be interested in something programmable in C. So email the site (email link is located a bottom left of web page) and inquire about their PIC microcontroller version of the ProtoBot. It does exist and I believe it is cheaper than the Basic Stamp ProtoBot. The PIC version of the ProtoBot is also compatible with the book "Programming Robot Controllers". The book includes a C compiler to program the PIC microcontroller on the ProtoBot (the 16F628). Armed with the ProtoBot and the book, you should be well off into gettiing into robotics. The ProtoBot can be expanded to do many things (see the link about Timmay on the site above). And if you get tired of the PIC 16F628, move on up to the PIC 18s or another micro, add other sensors, etc. It can keep you busy for quite a while without getting too expensive.

Welcome aboard.

Some essential questions are how much time and money do you have for this and what are your expectations/goals?

What brings you to robotics; what do you want to do? Mobile robots? Robot arms? Walking machines? Each has its own communities. If you're lucky, there might even be a robotics club near you.

Daniel