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Lego: Lego Mindstorms
built 630 days ago
Lego Mindstorms is the first affordable, mass-market robotics lab! For decades, LEGO has provided snappable, stackable plastic bricks for creating vehicles, buildings, or whatever else your imagination can produce. MindStorms adds a computerized brick, motors, sensors, and a set of software "bricks" that are snapped together on a PC screen and transmitted to the smart LEGO brick with an infrared beam.
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In 2006 a new Lego Mindstorms kit called Mindstorms NXT was released. It is more advanced than the RCX, has a bigger screen than the RCX, and has a new array of sensors. They include touch, sound, light, and a new ultrasonic sensor technology. There is ... a Bluetooth compatible hookup that can send and receive messages from one's cellphone and other Bluetooth compatible devices. The RCX was only compatible with Windows, but NXT is compatible with both Windows and Mac OS.
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Building Robots with Lego Mindstorms explains how to build robots using Lego bricks and components. Part One describes the lure of the hobby, and why Lego is an ideal system for beginners. Part Two moves into the practical aspects of robot building, discussing the basics of mechanics, motors, sensors, pneumatics, and navigation, and offering a variety of tips and tricks. Part Three surveys a wide range of possible ideas for building, with the idea of inspiring the creative impulses of the reader rather than offering models for simple replication.
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[S]ome users wanted much more: The Lego user community LUGNET - totally independent by the company - is one of the best examples of a community where users co-create and co-design based around a manufacturer's products. Here, users do not only swap parts or share pictures of their individual models, but ... build together an open source based design software to create great expert constructions. Also, a whole number of small user shops sell unique models and designs. When Lego introduced its Mindstorms Robotic toys, after several years of development, some users "hacked" the robotic kit and improved the performance of the construction kit and its processing capabilities by several dimensions in just a few weeks (this is one of the best documented and fascinating of user innovation). All these user activities, however, were not facilitated or really utilized by Lego.
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Steve Hassenplug is sitting in a van with seven other people on the way to a Lego convention in Washington, DC, explaining the limitations of Lego's previous robot-building kit, called Mindstorms. "It was always difficult to build a robot that could drive straight," he says.
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Lego Mindstorms