BrickFest ‘06 - Dave on DominoBotNXT
Thursday, August 31st, 2006
I hung out with Dave Astolfo a bit last weekend at BrickFest and he took some time to tell me about DominoBotNXT. A project that was initially created for a pretty successful Mindstorms book, Dave has since put the robot through several revisions. In this video, he talks about its evolution and gives it a spin.
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Ars Technica Reviews NXT
Thursday, August 31st, 2006
Ars Technica’s Nate Anderson has reviewed the new LEGO Mindstorms NXT. The good, he says, is that the “programming system [is] easy enough to let Grandma build a ‘bot.” He was disappointed, however, that it did not come with a death ray. Me too! Perhaps we’ll someday see a certified third-party death ray. Until then, I guess a spring missle launcher will suffice.
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First Looks: HiTechnic Compass Sensor
Thursday, August 31st, 2006
I’m a HUGE fan of Filip’s writing over at bNXT. He has recently updated his site with a great preview of the new HiTechnic compass sensor.
The new HiTecnic Lego brick adds value to my NXT set, and I believe sensors like these will bring more people to buy the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT set. Users will have a wider range of sensors to build robots with. So everyone wins.
- Filip Verhaeghe
Likewise, Brian Davis over at theNXTStep has also given its readers a first look at this exciting new sensor.
I took a HiTechnic compass sensor and mounted it on JennToo, and then went ahead and wrote a program to keep the compass sensor pointed due south. The result is a fun and impressive robot that consistantly points in one direction (it’s a $250+ compass… OK, I need to make something more practical someday).
- Brian Davis
As you’ll notice in both articles, Filip and Brian highly praise the seamless integration of LEGO and HiTechnic hardware with this compass sensor. I wholeheartedly agree and cannot wait to see what else is on the horizon as the result of this terrific collaboration.
REMINDER: After all this praise to the new HiTechnic Compass sensor - the winner of the NXTasy Challenge will get one of these new sensors free of charge from HiTechnic! Click here for details.
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BrickFest ‘06 - mindsensors.com Controls a Skull Bot
Wednesday, August 30th, 2006
For yet another look at the new mindsensors.com PlayStation wireless controller for the LEGO Mindstorms NXT, check out this video from last weekend’s BrickFest. The guys hook it up to a skull head robot built by Philip Eudy. Spooky, yet totally awesome! I want one!
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MS Robotics Studio - Service Tutorials
Wednesday, August 30th, 2006The documentation for Microsoft Robotics Studio, a new Windows-based development environment that allows the creation of robotics applications for the LEGO Mindstorms NXT (and other robotics hardware), has been pretty skimpy lately. In fact, any help thus far has consisted only of a few tutorial files provided with the installation. Being familiar with software implementations, however, I can understand that the focus may be centered first on getting the product to work before documenting how it works.
That said, I have to give kudos to the guys over at Microsoft for updating their site today with several new Robotics Studio tutorials. The new content takes aim at creating and subscribing to services.
Writing an application using the Microsoft Robotics Studio is a simple matter of orchestrating input and output between a set of services. Services represent the interface to software or hardware and allow you to communicate between processes that perform specific functions.
If you are new to Microsoft Robotics Studio, we strongly recommend that you begin with these tutorials to create a strong foundation upon which you can build as you progress with Robotics Studio.
It looks like they have several tutorials in the pipeline to cover general robotics and simulations, as well. The great thing with these latest tutorials is that a robot is not required. Good for me 1000 miles from home!
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BrickFest ‘06 - Man Meets Machine
Wednesday, August 30th, 2006
You thought Kasparov vs. Deep Blue was epic?! Well, witness as I, a self-proclaimed tic-tac-toe virtuoso, squared off against Bryan Bonahoom’s W.O.P.R. at last weekend’s BrickFest. It was a great battle that ended in a draw, but even more impressive was the robot itself.
See the video.
In describing the robot, here’s what Bryan told nxtasy.org:
W.O.P.R. is a robot that exploits the advantages of NXT over RCX. I previously constructed an RCX based robot to play Tic-Tac-Toe. Obtaining the accuracy required (1/2 a stud in two directions) to play cubes was very difficult and it required many pieces and sensors. With the NXT, I simply used the built in motor encoders. Additionally, it was difficult to get the required dynamic range out of the RCX light sensor to distinguish between filled cells and empty cells on the board. The led to much more complicated solutions to detect the cubes on the board. The NXT light sensor is able to consistently distinguish between cubes and empty cells.
All of this led to an ability to construct a much simpler robot. I also changed the cube size from 4 studs with the RCX robot to 2 studs. Simpler robot and smaller cubes allowed me to construct a much smaller and portable robot. Additionally, this led to a higher reliability. The WOPR ran through BrickFest without any physical breakdowns. The only time it had difficulty playing consistently was when the batteries were extremely low.
The NXT display also enables the inclusion of instructions to the user on resetting the robot. This allowed WOPR to run unattended. I just wish I had included a game counter in the code.
As a side note: Some of the readers may not be old enough to remember the movie War Games from the early 1980’s. This is where the name of my robot came from. WOPR stands for War Operations Planned Response. If you look at the NXT carefully, you will see that it is named Joshua.
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BrickFest ‘06 - LEGO Ambassador Slideshow
Tuesday, August 29th, 2006
Tormod Askildsen, head of Community Development at the LEGO Group, discusses the LEGO Ambassador program during his BrickFest keynote address.
View the presentation.
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BrickFest ‘06 - New mindsensors.com Products
Monday, August 28th, 2006
I stopped by the mindsensors.com booth at BrickFest to get a sneak peek at some of their exciting new products for the LEGO Mindstorms NXT.
Deepak first showed me a robot using their new magnetic compass sensor (now shipping). With logic to maintain an orientation to the north, the robot quickly compensated as he turned the platter beneath it. He also told me about an RCX-NXT communication adapter that hooks up to the NXT and is capable of controlling RCX motors and sensors with its IR link.
Finally, I watched Nitin demonstrate remote control of a vehicle using a wireless PlayStation controller adapter. With the ability to program both analog joysticks and all 14 buttons, there are plenty of options available to builders to control their NXT creations remotely.
See the video.
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Time Machine
Monday, August 28th, 2006
Building instructions for Matthias Paul Scholz’s Time Machine have been posted. It really works, too! Build it yourself, but please proceed with caution. I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again - Matthias rocks.
See the video.
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New MDP Profile - John Hansen
Monday, August 28th, 2006The Meet the MDP’s section on the LEGO site has been updated to include a profile of John Hansen. Known for the plethora of programming utilities he has contributed to the Mindstorms community, it’s great to learn a little more about him.
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Solid Modeling
Sunday, August 27th, 2006
Thanks to Bernard for sending us a link to Solid Modeling - Resource Primer for 3D Artists. Developed by Carnegie Mellon, it serves as a repository for Pro/ENGINEER Wildfire 3D models for those interested in designing and animating with LEGO Mindstorms NXT parts.
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Try THIS with the NXT ball!
Sunday, August 27th, 2006It seems to be the latest craze in LEGO land for builders to come up with clever ways to incorporate the NXT ball with their robots. Anybody up to try this one?
Meet BallBot - a robot developed at Carnegie Mellon University capable of balancing on a single spherical wheel.
In a premlinary experiment paper entitled “One is Enough!“, BallBot’s researchers proclaim “multi-wheel statically-stable mobile robots for operation in human environments are an evolutionary dead end.” Bold statements, I’d say, probably directed at the well-publicized Segway. “Robots of this class tall enough to interact meaningfully with people,” CMU researchers say, “must have low centers of gravity, overly wide bases of support, and very low accelerations to avoid tipping over.” A single spherical wheel, however, will reduce a robot’s footprint and allow it to turn in any direction quickly.
Here are a few CMU videos of BallBot:
Response to Disturbance
Point-to-Point Motion
Press Release:
BallbotAugustFinal.pdf
BallBot is also featured in the September issue of Popular Science. It’s available now on news stands and online.
There you have it. The math is provided in the research papers. So I’d say pick up a few acceleration sensors from mindsensors.com or Vernier, and get to it!
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BrickFest ‘06 - John Brost’s Camera Bot
Saturday, August 26th, 2006
MDP member John Brost was kind enough to tell me about his LEGO Mindstorms NXT robot on display for BrickFest. The robot uses two intelligent bricks, one for the vehicle and one for the controller, communicating with each other via bluetooth. With a Kodak EasyShare V570 mounted on the front of the vehicle, John is able to send streaming video back to his laptop with a wireless transmitter. It also comes equipped with a BIONICLE Zamor sphere shooter that he demonstrates by pegging a kid in the leg. Awesome.
See the video! At one point, he has a run in with another robot. He should’ve pegged that one to death with spheres. Muhahah…
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