Teaching robotics with LEGO Mindstorms

Dylan Evans, Senior Lecturer in Intelligent Autonomous Systems, University of the West of England
As little as four years ago, low-level robotics courses were almost entirely theoretical, because it was too expensive to provide enough equipment for everyone to get direct practical experience. Thanks to the ever-decreasing cost of computing, however, mobile robots are now cheap enough that it is feasible to provide a class of undergraduates with enough equipment to enable all of them to get hands-on experience of building robots. Of the various off-the-shelf kits that may be purchased, my favourite is the LEGO Mindstorms Robotic Invention System.
What is Mindstorms?
Mindstorms is the name that LEGO gives to their range of robotic toys. The basic kit retails for around £170, which may be supplemented with other pieces sold separately. Inside the basic kit is a variety of LEGO components, ranging from the basic building blocks that many adults today remember from their childhood, to gears and axle accessories that can be combined to construct complex steering assemblies. The most important component is the RCX brick, a yellow LEGO block about the size of a cigarette packet that contains a microcontroller chip. Robots of many different shapes and sizes can be constructed by attaching sensors, motors and other components to the RCX brick. Programs can then be written on a computer and downloaded to the chip on the RCX, where they are stored for future use by the robot.
The blurb on the box states that Mindstorms is intended for children aged 12 and above, but this figure on its own is highly misleading. In my capacity as a Science and Engineering Ambassador I have taken Mindstorms into primary schools and witnessed children as young as 7 using it without much difficulty. I have also listened to papers delivered by 60 year-old professors at international scientific conferences in which they describe their use of Mindstorms to conduct advanced research in robotics. Mindstorms is used by a number of universities around the world to teach robotics, and the average age of people owning their own Mindstorms kits is over 30. In other words, Mindstorms approaches the ideal of a 'low-floor, high-ceiling' edutainment system that is simple enough for children to use yet also flexible enough to keep adults engaged.
How do I use Mindstorms in my teaching?
Since September 2004, I have been running a module called 'An Introduction to Robotics' for first-year engineering students enrolled on the new BSc in Robotics that I set up at the University of the West of England. The module comprises 24 one-hour lectures and 24 two-hour workshops. The workshops lead the students through a series of activities designed to take them from scratch to a basic practical knowledge of robot design. Almost all of these activities are based around the LEGO Mindstorms Robotic Invention System, which thereby provides a consistent hardware platform throughout the year.
Although the use of a single hardware platform throughout the course provides a degree of consistency, there is a danger that it might also limit the range of potential learning experiences available to the student. This risk is reduced in this course because the reconfigurable nature of LEGO means that a wide range of different robot bodies can be constructed. This gives Mindstorms a considerable advantage over most other robots used in education, which generally have fixed bodies and are therefore only suitable for teaching programming. With Mindstorms, students can explore the mechanical challenges of building robot bodies as well as the computational challenges of programming robot minds. Mindstorms thus allows students to explore one of the most fascinating and important aspects of robotics - the interaction between the physical design of the robot and its software. Students discover that many problems in robotics can be solved by making small mechanical changes to the body of the robot rather than by introducing complex subroutines into the program.
At the beginning of each workshop, students receive a handout describing the task for that session. They then work in groups of two or three, each with its own Mindstorms kit, to complete the task. My role, as the teacher, is to act as a mobile learning resource, on hand to help groups that require assistance, while not interfering with those who are progressing well on their own. This approach to teaching sits well with theories of learning such as that of Kolb, which emphasise the role of active experimentation and concrete experience. However, the worksheets are not mere task-descriptions, but also encourage students to reflect on what they are doing and to derive more abstract principles from the practical activities they are engaged in.
Mindstorms and constructionism
It does not require an advanced knowledge of pedagogical theory to see that Mindstorms embodies a distinctly constructionist philosophy of learning, one in which great emphasis is placed on the need for students to 'get their hands dirty' by experimenting with things for themselves. In fact, constructionist theories of learning played a direct role in the creation of Mindstorms, which was originally developed by a partnership of the LEGO group and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the 1980s, and named after a book by an MIT Professor called Seymour Papert. Papert was a long-term collaborator with Jean Piaget, one of the most influential proponents of constructionist approaches to learning.
Not everyone likes to learn by doing. Students differ in their learning styles, with some preferring to 'sit and think' and not to 'poke and see'. A course based around Mindstorms will favour students whose learning styles are more hands-on and may alienate students of a more abstract disposition, but there are several reasons why this is not a grave problem.
Firstly, this course is aimed at precisely those students who are 'good with their hands' but do not excel at the more abstract kinds of exercise which are the staple diet in more traditional engineering courses. Students who like dealing with abstractions can still choose more traditional engineering courses, which tend to put off other students who have difficulty seeing the relevance of the mathematical techniques which are often introduced without any practical context. A traditional course in programming, for example, might start by getting students to write a program that sorts numbers or draws a geometrical pattern. Only much later do students learn to build more useful programs out of the rather dry components they learnt at the start. In this course, by contrast, students write programs to make real robots move around, from the very first week. Not only are the results of their programming more visible and more engaging from the very start, but debugging the program is also much easier when the output is robot behaviour (movement and flashing lights) rather than a series of numbers on a screen.
Secondly, if students who are not 'good with their hands' take this course, they will be forced to develop the manual and visualisation skills that are vital for engineers. With more traditional engineering courses, there has always been a risk that students of a more conceptual bent might be able to pass with flying colours by relying exclusively on their abilities to reason about abstract principles, resulting in graduate engineers who have no feeling for the messy realities of real-world construction.
Mindstorms and abstraction
Although the course does place great emphasis on hands-on experience, it also encourages students to reflect on what they are doing and to derive more abstract principles from the practical activities they are engaged in. This is achieved by means of carefully-designed questions for discussion that will punctuate the task descriptions on the handouts distributed in the workshops. By grounding all these questions in a physical object - a robot that students can constantly manipulate and observe directly - the abstract thinking they encourage is constantly referred back to and tested against the real world. This 'physical anchor' helps students feel safer when venturing into the airy realms of speculation.
Robots are wonderful 'tools for thinking with'. They are 'philosophical toys', embodied thought-experiments, physical prostheses for the mind. They raise all sorts of questions about the nature of machines and animals, and ultimately about ourselves. I take full advantage of the power of robots to help people think through abstract questions by encouraging my students to draw comparisons between the components of their robots and other things such as the organs of animals and the pieces of very different machines. Students may draw inspiration from other machines and from animals when designing their robots, and this in turn may lead them to ask new questions about animals and machines. Their LEGO blocks are transformed into versatile tools for modelling a wide variety of natural and artificial systems. For example, students are encouraged to discover more about how animals find their way back to their nests/burrows/etc and to write programs based on the same principles that enable their robots to navigate.
Robots can also provide an exciting means of teaching what is otherwise usually very dull - the techniques for gathering data about the performance of a machine, and for analysing that data. Such techniques are a fundamental part of any engineer's skillset, but they are usually taught by means of context-free exercises in statistics. By contrast, students on this course are required to use the sensors onboard their robots to collect data about the robot's performance, to find a way of transferring that data to their computers, and to analyse that data in such a way as to derive suggestions for improving the robot. Once again, the robot provides a familiar and meaningful context for an otherwise abstract and disembodied task.
Finally, students are encouraged to think about the differences between the real world and the virtual world by using a range of computer programs that simulate a variety of LEGO robots. Students can program these virtual robots and then watch them run around in the virtual world of the simulation, then download the same program into the real robot and compare its performance to that of the virtual robot. This introduces the students to one of the most interesting debates in contemporary robotics - the relative merits of using computer simulations and real phsyical systems when designing new robots.
Dylan Evans is the author of several popular science books, including Emotion: The Science of Sentiment (Oxford University Press, 2001) and Placebo: The Belief Effect (HarperCollins, 2003). After receiving his PhD in Philosophy from the London School of Economics, he did postdoctoral research in philosophy at King's College London and in robotics at the University of Bath before moving the University of the West of England where he is currently Senior Lecturer in Intelligent Autonomous Systems. He writes regularly for Guardian and the Evening Standard, makes frequent appearances on radio and television, and often gives talks at festivals of science and literature. In 2001 he was voted one of the 20 best young writers in Britain by the Independent on Sunday, and was recently described by the Guardian as 'Alain de Botton in a lab coat'. He also does occasional performances as a DJ at literary events such as the Hay Festival of Literature and the Orange Prize for Fiction.
Dylan EvansFaculty of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical SciencesUniversity of the West of EnglandFrenchay CampusColdharbour LaneBristol BS16 1QY
Bibliography
Baum, D, Gasperi, M, Hempel, R and Villa, L (2000). Extreme Mindstorms: An Advanced Guide to LEGO Mindstorms. New York: Apress
Ferrari, M, Ferrari, G, and Hempel, R (2002). Building Robots with LEGO Mindstorms. Rockland, MA: Syngress Publishing
Wakeman-Linn and J, Perry, A (2002). A Proposal to Incorporate LEGO Mindstorms into an Introduction to Engineering Course. Proceedings of the 2002 ASEE/SEFI/TUB Colloquium

Which approach is best for you? by Dick Swan

Three different programming environments are available from LEGO for the NXT– NXT-G, ROBOLAB and ROBOTC, and they all make it quite easy to program Mindstorms robots. In addition, the open source community has developed other alternative programming solutions for the NXT. This article provides an introduction to the rich selection of programming approaches available today. This online expanded version of the Winter 2007 article features an extended comparison table and a lot more technical details behind this article.

NXT-G
NXT-G is a graphical programming environment developed by National Instruments for LEGO. Writing an NXT-G program is very much like creating a flowchart. You “write” a program by dragging icons (“code blocks”) that describe different behaviors, e.g., turn motor A on at 75 percent of full power, and connect them with lines to describe the program behavior. Using a variety of code blocks, you can control motors, introduce delays, play sounds and direct the flow of your code according to the state of sensors and timers, etc.
The diagram shows an NXT-G implementation for a “classical” line-following robot. The program looks at the value of a light sensor positioned above the line, and depending on which side of the line edge it is on, i.e., light or dark, turns one rear wheel on and the other rear wheel off. This is implemented as a loop that is repeated forever. Inside the loop, the light-sensor value is checked and the program branches to “true” or “false” code based on the value. NXT-G is targeted at children and adults with no programming experience, and for this reason, it is very easy to use.

NXT-G graphical programming screen for a line-following robot.

ROBOLAB
ROBOLAB was originally developed by Tufts University for LEGO for the first generation LEGO Mindstorms RCX microprocessor “brick.” It was extensively enhanced and revised to support both the RCX and the second-generation NXT.
ROBOLAB is another graphical environment, although it is not as intuitive as the NXT-G language. If you already know
ROBOLAB or you need to program on both the RCX and NXT, ROBOLAB is a good choice for you. If you’re just starting and want a graphical programming language for the NXT, the NXT-G is the better choice.

ROBOLAB program screen for line following.
ROBOLAB was written using the LabVIEW system from National Instruments. LabVIEW is also the underlying core technology used to write NXT-G. Other useful ROBOLAB features include support of both integer and floating point calculations, and ROBOLAB has a comprehensive data-logging solution. Graphical interfaces such as NXT-G and ROBOLAB are very intuitive but can become tedious as you become more experienced with programming.

ROBOTC
The ROBOTC solution allows the NXT to be programmed using the industry-standard C language. It was developed by the Robotics Academy at Carnegie Mellon University and can be obtained from the LEGO Education Group or directly from the Robotics Academy at www.robotc.net. Both of the graphical programming solutions had drag-and-drop capabilities for the “code blocks.” ROBOTC has a similar capability, but with it, you drag and drop text. The left window in the picture contains the “dictionary” of ROBOTC’s built-in robotics control capabilities. ROBOTC is targeted at novices and advanced users. ROBOTC has “basic” and “expert” modes; in the “basic” mode, a lot of the advanced functionality and menus are hidden.

ROBOTC screen showing classic line-following program.

ROBOTC has a powerful interactive real-time debugger that significantly reduces the time it takes to debug programs. So far, over 2,000 students have been taught ROBOTC in the classroom; at the end of the first class, they were programming and running their first ROBOTC programs for the NXT. Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Academy has developed step-by-step instructional videos that enable new users to become competent programmers quickly. ROBOTC supports both the NXT and RCX as well as products from Innovation FIRST (VEX and the FIRST Robotics Competition).

NXC ... NOT EXACTLY C
NXC (Not eXactly C) is a C-like language for the NXT. NXC programs are developed using the Bricx development environment. Bricx was originally developed for LEGO’s earlier RCX robotics product and has been enhanced to support the NXT.
NXC uses the same firmware as NXT-G. This is very convenient for users who want to program in both a graphical and a text environment because they don’t have to reload and change the firmware every time they switch the environment type. You can store both NXT-G and NXC programs simultaneously in the same brick. NXC has the same limitations as the NXT-G solution. It has integer but not floating-point variables. It doesn’t have more powerful LCD text formatting.

NXC line-drawing program screen.
The NXC programming language syntax and semantics are similar to C’s, but they are also different. For example, NXC character strings start with a double quote and end with a single quote; C uses double quotes for both the start and the end. NXC and ROBOTC are the only solutions that have run-time debuggers.

PBLUA
Lua is a relatively new text-based language that has gained a lot of attention and interest in the academic arena. pbLua is a full-featured version of Lua for the NXT. The pbLua implementation of the line- following program is very similar to the ROBOTC and NXC implementation.

pBLua implementation of line following.

NXJ
NXJ is a JAVA implementation for the NXT. It is standard JAVA but with a much smaller Class library. The standard Class library is far too large for the total 256K bytes of memory on the NXT. NXJ programs are written and compiled on the PC. The compiled programs are then transferred to the NXT where they can be executed.

NXJ line-following programming.

CONCLUSION
NXT-G is likely a good choice for a graphical programming solution. ROBOTC is a good, text-based programming solution. If you don’t need the full power of ROBOTC or want an open source solution and already have programming experience, NXC is another choice for you. pbLua and NXJ show promise but are not currently mature enough or sufficiently full-featured for most users.
Author Dick Swan is an avid LEGO robotics fan. He is also one of the principal developers of the ROBOTC system and co-developer of the ROBOLAB extensions for the NXT.
Links

LEGO Mindstorms retail, mindstorms.lego.com
LEGO Education, www.lego.com/eng/education/mindstorms/default.asp 
National Instruments NXT-G Programming, www.ni.com/academic/mindstorms
NXJ JAVA for the NXT, lejos.sourceforge.net
NXC Programming Language, bricxcc.sourceforge.net/nbc
pbLUA for the NXT, www.hempeldesigngroup.com/lego/pbLua

ROBOLAB graphical programming, 130.64.87.22/robolabatceeo or www.lego.com/eng/education/mindstorms/home.asp? pagename=robolab
Robotics Academy ROBOTC, www.robotc.net

Lego Building Instruction Books by Wycliffe Williams

Lego Building Instruction Books are excellent educational tools developed by Lego. They also have a bevy of Lego Education Centers. They like to think that engineers, architects, scientists and designers have their genesis in these centers.
LEGO centers claim to provide a safe, inspirational atmosphere for young creative minds. They focus on and develop the following areas:
• Concentration
• Self-confidence
• Innovation
• Team-work
• Spatial intelligence
Perhaps a small historical journey is appropriate at this point. The LEGO Group was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen. He was the inventor of the LEGO bricks. Christiansen desired a total world-wide involvement by the group.
“Only the best is good enough” was his motto. The LEGO team says that ‘today we still involve that spirit in every way we operate.’
With this as a backdrop, we are now faced with their recent announcement. Here is the headlines: “LEGO Says It’s Running Out Of Toys For Christmas”
What a disappointing turn of events. To whom much is given-much is required. They have fallen a long way away from their stated motto, “Only the best is good enough” What does LEGO suggest we do with our Lego Building Instruction Books? We have no LEGO building blocks!
What would Mr. Christiansen say about this mess? They’ve been in business for almost 75 years. Did the coming of Christmas 2006 catch them unawares? How did they prepare for the other 73 Christmases? How could they run out of toys for Christmas?
Many of us were raised on LEGO toys. I had hours and hours of fun playing with my LEGO. So did my children and now my grandson. What does LEGO suggest we tell our children?
Lego Building Instruction Books are useless without the blocks. Do you want LEGO for your child this Christmas? Then get LEGO now! Grab the link here Lego Building Instruction Books
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Wycliffe_Williams

Synthesize-your-own NXT® connector plug

The LEGO NXT kit uses connector that are very similar to regular telephone plugs. For safety reasons, LEGO could not use telephone plug, so they chosen a variant with the latch offset to the right side. Unfortunately, this connector is not available anywhere, even if yet another version (called "DEC" connector) can be easily found... but with the latch on the wrong side!





Mindsensors now sells NXT-style RJ12 connectors!
Warning: You will need to customize a regular RJ12 crimping tool (for example this low cost one) to use these connectors. More on this when I have hacked mine!




...and they also offer NXT compatible sockets to build your own NXT compatible devices.
Warning: contrarily to most RJ sockets, pins have two staggered lines of 2mm pitch pins (instead of 2.54mm pitch).



As NXT cables were in short supply, and as I wanted to experiment with the new sensors and motors, I crafted a few connectors from regular RJ-12 phone connectors... here is how. I have converted about 10 connectors, it's rather easy if you have the right tool and are reasonably skilled. I can now convert a connector in less than 5 minutes (glue curing time not included)...

We start with a regular RJ-12 plug, already crimped on its cable (plugs, cable and inexpensive crimping tools are available from many electronics shops). The plug and cable must have 6 wires available, and to follow LEGO color coding, it's better that the wires color order (from left to right) be blue/yellow/green/red/black/white.
Warning: If you crimp your connectors, it's better to verify that the contacts between wires and connector are good before converting the plug!

If you compare a RJ-12 plug to a NXT plug, there are two differences:
the latch must be moved to the right of fhe connector
RJ-12 latch is wider and will need to be shrunk to match NXT latch size.
The tongue of the latch is also wider on the RJ-12 plug, but since it fits the NXT socket, it doesn't matter.

Read more

Dari Bermain Lego Kemudian Mencipta Robot

Minggu, 06-07-2008 11:56:59 oleh: Retty N. Hakim

Ketika anak-anak masih kecil, salah satu kesukaan utama mereka tentunya bermain. Bermain lego adalah salah satu kegemaran utama mereka. Lego memang bisa membantu mereka dalam mengembangkan baik kemampuan motorik maupun kemampuan berpikir logis dan peningkatan kretivitas anak.
Ketika saya kecil juga senang bermain balok-balok kayu, mainan yang kemudian berkembang menjadi mainan balok-balok lego. Terkadang orang mengatakan permainan masa kecil itu yang menjadi dasar pemilihan teknik arsitektur sebagai pilihan kuliah saya. Mungkin ada benarnya..., tapi ternyata lego bukan sekedar untuk menciptakan arsitek atau kontraktor, permainan ini juga bisa mendorong anak menjadi pencipta robot maupun progammer komputer.
Itulah yang saya saksikan dari kegiatan Olimpiade Robotik Indonesia 2008 (Indonesian Robotic Olympiad 2008) yang berlangsung saat ini (6 Juli 2008) di Crystal Lagoon, Senayan City, Jakarta. Olimpiade Robotik Indonesia 2008 adalah olimpiade tahunan ke lima yang dipertandingkan di Indonesia. Pemenang dari pertandingan nasional ini akan menjadi duta Indonesia ke Olimpiade Robotik Dunia (World Robotic Olympiad) ke 5 di Yokohama, Jepang.
Acara Olimpiade Robotik Indonesia kali ini sekaligus merupakan pembukaan sebuah pusat komunitas robotik sekaligus sebuah toko dari Mikrobot (lihat http://www.mikrobot.com/). Sebagai penyelenggara tahunan Olimpiade Robotik Indonesia, Mikrobot juga menjadi national partner dari World Robot Olympiad.
Peserta pertandingan ini selain berasal dari Jabodetabek juga datang dari berbagai kota lain di Indonesia seperti Bandung, Surabaya, Surakarta, bahkan dari Medan, Sumatera Utara.
Menarik juga menyaksikan anak-anak usia SD mengikuti persiapan Olimpiade ini kemarin. Seorang ibu yang menunggui anaknya mengatakan betapa beberapa anak tampil santai dan masih seperti bermain, sementara mungkin orang tuanya yang lebih tegang menyaksikan pertandingan itu.
Memang saya lihat para peserta tetap tampil santai dengan gaya mereka masing-masing. Ada yang sudah serius membuka laptop ketika menanti pembukaan pertandingan. Ada juga yang santai bermain atau ngobrol. Penampilan rambut harajuku juga ada terlihat, ada juga seorang peserta dengan penampilan kepang panjang yang menghiasi rambutnya.
Hal lain yang menarik perhatian saya adalah sedikitnya jumlah anak perempuan yang mengikuti acara ini. Dari 123 peserta junior dan senior hanya ada 4 orang peserta perempuan, dua orang junior dan dua orang senior. Entah apakah minat anak perempuan lebih kecil pada kegiatan robotik atau karena kurangnya dukungan orang tua pada minat anak perempuan pada kegiatan ini.
Dukungan orang tua, sekolah, maupun klub pencinta robotik memang sangat penting dalam pengembangan kreativitas anak-anak ini. Kegiatan ini sebenarnya membutuhkan modal yang cukup besar. Saya beruntung karena sekolah anak saya bekerja sama dengan sebuah lembaga pendidikan robotik sehingga biaya yang ditanggung orang tua dalam memberikan anaknya pengalaman mengenal dunia pembuatan robot dan programnya ini tidak terlalu besar.
Seluruhnya ada 40 tim junior dan 23 tim senior yang bertanding. Satu tim terdiri atas dua orang, walaupun ada juga tiga orang yang bertanding sendirian. Dalam kerja tim memang anak-anak juga diajarkan untuk tidak egois, belajar bekerja sama dan saling membagi tanggung jawab.
Dari empat kali pertandingan pada tahun-tahun sebelumnya terlihat peningkatan prestasi anak-anak Indonesia. Berangkat dari hanya satu tim yang berhasil berangkat ke WRO 2004 di Singapura, setiap tahun terlihat perkembangan yang cukup baik, dilihat dari peningkatan jumlah tim yang bisa mewakili Indonesia di event internasional, maupun hasil yang dicapainya. Tahun 2007 lalu Rubik Solver Robot menerima "Golden Award" dari WRO 2007 di Taipei-Taiwan.
Semoga kegiatan positif seperti ini bisa ditingkatkan. Dan dengan kerjasama berbagai pihak yang memperhatikan pendidikan anak bangsa kegiatan ini bisa menjangkau lebih banyak anak lagi.

source : http://www.wikimu.com/News/DisplayNews.aspx?id=9360

Lego Mania - From Blocks to Bots by Peter Shuttlewood

Who doesn’t recall the excitement of hours spent as children surrounded by small interconnecting blocks called Lego Bricks building elaborate creations limited only by our imagination.
The story of this famous Danish icon reads like a Hans Christian Andersen fable.
In 1932, master carpenter and joiner Ole Kirk Christiansen, establishes a small business in the village of Billund in Denmark manufacturing stepladders, ironing boards… and wooden toys. By 1934 the company adopts the name Lego for their products, formed from the Danish words “LEg GOdt”(play well). Not too long after the Lego company is the first in Denmark to buy a plastic injection-moulding machine for making toys. In 1948 the Lego “Mursten” (Brick) is born.
Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen (his surname accidentally misspelled on his birth certificate), the grandson of Ole Kirk is now CEO. The house where his father, Godtfred, grew up is now nestled amid the Lego Group’s corporate buildings and the original Legoland theme park (there are now four) sits adjacent.
The basic eight-stud Lego brick hasn’t changed, including the recipe for the plastic used. Almost every office and conference room at Lego HQ still contains a bowl of loose Lego bricks so that people can play during meetings.
What makes Lego bricks unique is that they click together and “lock” so that large structures can be built and still hold together. This design developed over time was so that a child could take a box of Lego bricks and create almost anything without it falling apart or toppling over. Instructions were never included so as to not restrict a child’s limitless imagination.
But anyone who hasn’t looked at Lego bricks since childhood may be in for a shock. Most modern Lego kits are so elaborate that they now come with a folder of step-by-step construction instructions.
To remain competitive Lego has adapted its history and values around simple child play to the technological world of Game Boy, Xbox and Playstation.
In 1999 in partnership with Lucasfilm Ltd., the company launched Star Wars themed Lego kits which became the biggest sellers in the company’s history. Their success inspired Lego Bionicles - a combination of biological and chronicle, the most elaborate having hundreds of pieces, which in turn inspired a movie.
Lego Mindstorms take it all to the next generation. They let you design and program real robots that do what you want them to. With the Robotics Invention System 2.0™, the core set of the Lego Mindstorms product range, you can create everything from a light-sensitive intruder alarm to a robotic rover that can follow a trail, move around obstacles, and even duck into dark corners.
Lego bricks continue to inspire not only 6 year olds but the child in us all. The web is awash with fan sites containing elaborate plans, sculptures and even films performed by Lego Brick actors.
Not bad for a product that’s sold in pieces, and requires imagination and a child’s touch to turn into into something amazing.
Interesting too that close by is the home of another well known product which leaves the factory in pieces requiring assembly …… IKEA.
Peter Shuttlewood is the author of webzine freshread which contains articles on Popular Culture with an Australian slant. Freshread - the everyday in a fresh way.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Peter_Shuttlewood

Lego Mindstorm by Lisa Weinberger

The name Lego has been stamped in our brains since childhood. Snapping plastic bricks of different sizes, shapes and colors together was the joy of any child who liked to build and create colossal structures. Imagine that same company now leading the way with home robot building! This is what Lego Mindstorms is all about.
With over 700 elements to choose from, parts that snap in like the bricks of old; enough power for the beginning builders as well as college level robot enthusiast, the Lego systems are leading the way in the robotics field. Included with each Mindstorms set is the ‘constructopedia’, explaining how to use new parts and providing building ideas. There is also a “pro challenges” section with the latest version, instructing the builder in a five-stage advanced robot construction. And did you know, Lego robots now have the capability of sight? With Vision Command (VC), you can take pictures with your robot, exploring the terrain it explores.
As with any machine, the brain of the Lego Mindstorm system is the most important part. The RCX programmable brick, no bigger then the size of two decks of playing cards, uses sensors to take input from its environment. This "smart brick" can process over 1000 commands per second. Whether you want a robot to crawl or you want one to count coins, the RCX can handle all tasks it is given. If you can imagine the machine, let Lego help you make your vision a reality with its Mindstorms system.
Lisa Weinberger is the CEO and founder of PearlyWrites, LLC. Before embarking on the journey as a full time writer, Lisa was a teacher, private tutor, and English Professor. Her degrees consists of a BA in English Writing, Minor in Psychology, and a Master of Arts in Teaching, as well as teaching certifications from NJ and FL. With a background of over 15 years in the field of education and being a small business owner, she can produce copy for a variety of clients in different topics, subjects and genres.
The company name PearlyWrites developed quite simply through Lisa's middle name of Pearl.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lisa_Weinberger