Real Robots was the name of a fortnightly partwork

Partwork

A partwork is a written publication released as a series of planned magazine-like issues over a period of time. Issues are typically released on a weekly, fortnightly or monthly basis, and often a completed set is designed to form a reference work on a particular topic.-Publication:Partwork series...

 magazine

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

 by Eaglemoss Publications. Developed in partnership with Reading University

University of Reading

The University of Reading is a university in the English town of Reading, Berkshire. The University was established in 1892 as University College, Reading and received its Royal Charter in 1926. It is based on several campuses in, and around, the town of Reading.The University has a long tradition...

, it allowed the reader to build a robot

Robot

A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...

, "Cybot", and later a companion robot, "Tom". This series, which was released in several countries, is now discontinued.

Construction phases

There were 96 issues of the magazine, divided into 5 phases:

• Phase 1 - Issues 1 to 17 - Cybot is built, and is able to follow lines on the floor, and sense light and objects.
• Phase 2 - Issues 18 to 40 - A remote control is built, along with a docking station, allowing Cybot to be programmed. Some issues also contain alternate body pieces, transforming Cybot into a 'Team Cybot', a formula-1 styled robot.
• Phase 3 - Issues 41 to 55 - Cybot becomes voice controlled with the addition of a headset to wear and some additional components for the remote control.
• Phase 4 - Issues 56 to 70 - Cybot learns to play 'football'. Infrared
  Infrared
  Infrared light is electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength longer than that of visible light, measured from the nominal edge of visible red light at 0.74 micrometres , and extending conventionally to 300 µm...
  
  location sensors are added to Cybot, as well as Infrared beacons in the form of a ball and a goal.
• Phase 5 - Issues 71 to 96 - TOM (Tracking Orbital Module) is built. TOM is a smaller robot than Cybot, with a similar look. Its features include scanning sonar, a higher speed, full programmability, 'emotions', and interaction with Cybot.

Praise

Especially during Phase 1, the magazine was very popular, as the reader quickly built a working robot, with new features added at a fast pace. The magazine was generally considered interesting and educational. As such, a large and active community built up around the magazine, including a couple of notably active websites, Cybotbuilder.com and Realcybot.com (both have now been taken offline).

Criticisms

At £3.99 per issue many subscribers complained that the building went at a slow pace, making it expensive (fewer parts per issue of the magazine). This was mainly caused by a continuous evolution of features of the project, meaning that there was no rigid timetable. A prime example of this was in Phase 2 - with 5 more issues than Phase 1, the main additions to the series were a remote control, contrary to the goal of building an autonomous robot, and a docking station which was largely unnecessary, and the "Team Cybot" customisation which was very unpopular and required a rebuild of significant parts of the robot.

External links

• Eaglemoss Publications
• Archive of realrobots.co.uk
• Archive of Realcybot.com
• Archive of Cybotbuilder.com