This Jitterbug’s brain is based on a circuit found in Forrest M. Mims III’s Getting Started in Electronics. Sold in most RadioShack stores for decades, this book inspired most electro-tinkerers of my generation—more on Mims and his books in the appendix.

If this project is for you, then go and get a copy of JunkBots, Bugbots, and Bots on Wheels: Building Simple Robots with BEAM Technology by David Hrynkiw and Mark Tilden. Tilden is the father of BEAM robotics, and the book is filled with awesome projects.

Back before BEAM—with its ethos of small, cheap, and easy—the amateur roboticists’ Bible was Robot Builder’s Bonanza by Gordon McComb and Myke Predko. Recent editions of this book have added lots of new advances (such as LEGO MINDSTORMS) and kept the classics (extensive discussions of BASIC Stamp and other microcontrollers and detailed instructions for big, heavy, rugged robots built of steel and lumber).

If the programmable robotics kits made by LEGO are your thing, then check out Laurens Valk’s LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 Discovery Book.

Solarbotics is the go-to spot for BEAM robotics kits, supplies, and info; see http://www.solarbotics.com/.