roBlocks

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

roBlocks is a coming new toy robotic system developed in CMU. Programming them seems to be simple - connect the right cubes together… They have sensors, actuators, operators (which do math..) and utility blocks (including a ‘comm’ block, which I guess means it communicates to a computer…)

I emailed them for more details, which I’ll post asap. In the meanwhile, I wonder if anyone wants to make a multi-NXT version… Maybe a community-organized project to define standard dimensions, connection scheme and inter-NXT BT/RS485 protocol. Anyone interested?

Update: from a paper published here I found this quote:

We plan to build a programming environment for more sophisticated programmers who wish to modify the behaviors that are built into the blocks. This would make our development cycle easier, but more importantly it would enable roBlocks users to take the next step toward programming distributed robotics algorithms.

Posted in news | Comments Off

Adding servos to NXT

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

Lattebox, a newcomer to the 3rd party products for NXT, sells an I2C multiplexer combined with a 10-servo driver box. Check it out here.

(thanks to Chris from diydrones.com for the link)

Posted in news | Comments Off

Changes on LEGO.com

Saturday, April 5th, 2008

Two major changes in the official LEGO MINDSTORMS website (mindstorms.lego.com). First, NXTLog is now upgraded, so you can upload video, rank projects and search projects easier then before.

Second, a new section called ‘Ask the NXTperts’ allow you to ask and get answers from selected MCP members, including myself (here’s my profile on lego site). So sign in, and start asking question!

Posted in news | Comments Off