Documentation

Solarbotics Herbie the Mousebot
Background:
Many, many moons ago, Randy Sargent was in a pickle. Not literally (yuck), but more of
an uncomfortable position of not having a robot to bring to the 1996 Seattle Robothon
“Line Follower” contest.
Would you believe the robot he cobbled up out of spare parts the night before the
competition actually won?!?
No, neither would we.
It actually ended up in last place, but it still impressed the heck out of everybody with
how simple and effective it was. And by using a chip in a very bizarre way, it has very
high “cool-hack” scores. The “Herbie” circuit was then released on the Web, and Randy’s
super-simple robot was being built all over the world. It’s been featured in
“Make” Magazine, and the books “Absolute Beginners Guide to Building
Robots”, and “Junkbots, Bugbots, and Bots on Wheels”. Being very
simple, quick, and affordable, “Herbie” continues to be a favorite
project for junkbot builders.
Solarbotics is pleased to bring you “Herbie the Mousebot”. We’ve
tweaked Randy’s original design to include a “backup!” function, and
be a light-follower rather than line-follower.
And what ever happened to Herbie’s inventor, Randy Sargent? He’s
gone from MIT’s Media Lab to NASA, and then Carnegie Mellon
University. It’s really too bad he hasn’t done something to top the
“Herbie”...
Solarbotics has a portion of Herbie sales
going to the KISS Institute for Practical
Robotics, which is a not-for-profit
organization that uses educational
robotics programs to actively engage
students in science, technology,
engineering, math, and project
management. It’s also one of many
educational projects Randy is involved with.
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