So summer is here and school is out and now I have 8 hours to do stuff with that I didn't have before. I am bored. I need books to read. What do you recommend?

Sorry about the ultra-conciseness, but 10 hours of video games seems to make my mind mush. Yea. so I am just looking for some books to read. Could be about 3D printing and the like, but I am open to any genre. I just need some ideas. I just finished Jonathan Zittrain's book 'The Future of the Internet and How to Stop it' so on to something else.

Any Suggestions?

---

Jay

This is reprap so I'll recommend this (http://www.molecularassembler.com/KSRM.htm), it isn't a book, but it is just as interesting as one. This is also interesting too (http://www.islandone.org/MMSG/aasm/).

Or instead of reading books why not put that spare thinking power to use and design parts for reprap?

That's great! This section is particularly interesting and topical:

[www.molecularassembler.com]

The virtually evolved robot crawler by Lipson and Pollack is fascinating! Being able to model real-world performance and then apply a genetic algorithm to the design space of 3d parts we can build and assemble-- becomes a really interesting source for 3d models!

This was also interesting to me:

> Stereolithography and rapid prototyping [1110-1119] enjoy widespread artistic
> [1169], academic** and commercial interest [931, 934], and machines which can
> print mechanical, electrical, and electronic logic componentry together on a
> small scale*** are under development [1170].

> 1170. Evan Malone, Kian Rasa, Daniel Cohen, Todd Isaacson, Hilary Lashley, Hod Lipson,
>

Catch Jay:
[ccsl.mae.cornell.edu]
has all the links you could want for printing batteries and electroflexing polymers.
This is stuff from the folks who brought you fab@home so get out your salt grain, alot of it strikes me as academic gamesmanship.

then try this thread:
[forums.reprap.org]

Awhile back this forum had a thread on books to read, but I can't find it in the time I've alotted myself.

Email me and I'll send you my picks from that thread, lots of sci-fi and generalist non-fic about fab and related topics, but right now I have to go sit in a very small room.

Yes, I remember seeing a movie of the 3D printed computer evolved robots somewhere.

Here's the authors site with the papers: [www.demo.cs.brandeis.edu].

This is quite cool, because now we have all the component needed to make this kind of evolved robots - all we need is to code a simulation that runs using e.g. [www.ode.org], and has various (possibly free-form) structural components, as well as modeled small servos, battery packs and arduinos (minis). Add in some sensor components for more fun!

A simulated environment for designing printable robots seems like a good idea even if you don't want to computer evolve them, just build them manually. And if we use similar primitives there, we could even have an 'Optimize' button in the program, that takes a hand modeled robot and runs it through a genetic algorithm to optimize some specific attribute.

A component library could be built up in a modular way, if you want to simulate a new kind of component (e.g. motor, or sensor), you just need to implement an interface that specifies how (or wether) it should be 3D printed, how it looks in the 3D preview, and how it behaves in the simulation. More complex components consisting of basic components could also be stored in the library, to speed up the design process both for humans and maybe the genetic algorithm (e.g. wheeled chassis, etc).

Sounds like a promising open source & open hardware project, anyone interested? I'm in for sure, got Java skills and 3D experience, and a small time slice that I can spend on this.

I'm back, and there it was waiting for me:
[forums.reprap.org]
That should help you pass the time. Or stop by the house and we'll build something. Or you can mow my lawn. Whichever.

... look here ( [forums.reprap.org] ) - especially the link to the evolving 'framsticks'-beasts.

Similar to the 'golem'-project there are some interesting paths, but i think framsticks have more possibilites than the golem-bots ...

Viktor