Lego Pong with NXTCam
Friday, May 2nd, 2008Here is an interesting robot from wayneage that plays Pong using a NXTCam camera to track a ball in real time. The NXTCam continuously sends the location (coordinates) of the ball to the NXT brick. The robot keeps adjusting its position to hit the ball when it is close enough. Before the robot starts, the NXTCam is taught the colours to track using another program called NXTCamView (this is not shown in the video). As you can see it works quite well - nice work!
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NXTCam videos
Wednesday, March 19th, 2008Here are a couple of good videos showing the mindsensors NXTCam in action. The first is an instructional video from markr showing how the NXTCam can be used in Line Tracking mode.
The second and third videos are from zeroqnaga showing a pair of robots. One robot is equipped with a NXTCam which is used to track and follow the other robot. First by day, then by night!
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NXT Medley
Friday, December 14th, 2007Check out these classic Christmas videos posted by the OrganFairy of him playing a medley with his modified AlphaRex.
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NXT UNV Rover added
Sunday, April 15th, 2007Months ago, I got my hands on a bunch of those new Technic tread links. I figured, what better thing to do than to build a big robot that uses them! So, I decided to tackle re-creating this:
and created this:
using a whole lot of NXT parts and 2 NXT bricks for Bluetooth remote control communications. UNV is a remote controlled NXT robot that uses the variable angle front drive tracks to overcome obstacles that would otherwise limit its ability. Details and video at: www.plastibots.com
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Bigger Font for NXT LCD Display
Saturday, January 6th, 2007The standard font for the NXT is 6W x 8H pixels per character. The RobotC development system now supports a larger font where characters are 12W x 16H. Here’a a photo of the NXT LCD comparing the standard and expanded font sizes.
The font file was developed by Jason Rail…. Thanks.
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LEGO plays hidden camera with the NXT
Monday, December 18th, 2006LEGO has put out two marketing videos (Robot Power and Robot Attack) where they placed 2 NXT robot demos and a hidden camera to record people’s reactions… Have a look for a good laugh….
Direct Link: http://5×5m.com/files/mindstorms/
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BrickFest PDX 2007
Monday, November 6th, 2006
A few years ago, the first BrickFest outside of the Washington, D.C. area was held in Portland, OR. Due to popular demand, it looks like another is in the works to be held March 30 - April 1!
In the spirit of the positive feedback we have received we are thinking of this event sort of like a “reunion”; we feel that the family or class reunion best captures the hullabaloo of last time, that we would like to extend to all AFOLs! In addition to several classrooms for sessions at the Oregon Convention Center we have 30,000 square feet of exhibit hall, so there is plenty of SPACE for exhibits and other activities.
Keep your eyes open for more information about registration and public day.
Miss out on this year’s BrickFest? See some of nxtasy.org’s coverage and videos!
[via BrickFest]
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Dr. Truchard on Cyber-Physical Systems
Friday, October 20th, 2006On Monday, Dr. James Truchard, President and CEO of National Instruments, delivered a keynote address to attendees of a National Science Foundation workshop on Cyber-Physical Systems. The workshop promoted a new government initative to research and enhance the real-time integration of computers and physical components.
Truchard discussed cyber-physical system design and programming, including technologies for distributed control and sensing using graphical system design tools. He also gave a preview of future technologies for cyber-physical system design and showed examples of LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT and wireless sensing devices.
He emphasized the importance of programming heterogeneous multiprocessor computer systems, which are key to controlling these types of systems, so that they meet concurrency, responsiveness, power, performance and reliability requirements.
[via National Instruments]
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Using Legacy Sensors with the NXT
Thursday, October 19th, 2006I wanted to start by thanking Eric for inviting me to contribute to nxtasy.org. I am honoured to be part of his team. As a brief intro to myself, I am one of the LEGO NXT MDP / MCP members and hope that through my site (http://www.astolfo.com/) and my participation in the community, that I can bring useful tips, robots and information to the table for others. Some of you may know me for creating DominoBot and DominoBotNXT. Now, on to the topic of this post.
Most of those in this tight community are aware of Mindsensors and HiTechnic for their RCX and NXT sensors, but there is another company out there producing high quality sensors for NXT and RCX systems that deserves mention. TechnoStuff (Techno-Stuff) has been creating RCX sensors for some time now, and I have had the chance to test a number of them including their:
.
What may not be so well known is that most of these sensors will work on the NXT kit. You simply need a NXT RCX wire converter and either NXT-G or a 3rd party programming language (eg. RobotC). The converter wires can be obtained from shop.lego.com, or you can make one yourself quite easily (as long as you dont mind cutting up a few cables).
Programming with these sensors in NXT-G can be done by using a legacy Temp Sensor block and raw output (for unpowered sensors) and a Light Sensor block for powered sensors. For my testing, I use RobotC and set the sensors up as a Light Sensor. This will allow you to read the raw reading values and code your robot to react appropriately. For more information on these sensors, visit the TechnoStuff website at www.techno-stuff.com.
Dave
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Buzz Words: Technology Convergence
Thursday, October 12th, 2006
Last month, Microsoft held its inaugural Global High Tech Summit where leaders in high-tech manufacturing met to discuss the future of their industry. Key topics included communication, collaboration, innovation, and convergence.
In high tech, competition is ferocious, the rules of the game change overnight, and the rate of change is accelerating due to new markets, customers, products and technology.
- Microsoft
Phil Hester, AMD’s corporate vice-president and chief technology officer, centered on this idea of technology convergence. He emphasized that the future technological frontier for exploration is the space between your cell phone and laptop computer.
Everything is essentially becoming a network device.
- Phil Hester, AMD
Hester believes that the focus should not only be on the progression and improvement of technology that already exists, but also the progression and improvement on the mechanisms to package and deliver that technology. He considers the new LEGO Mindstorms NXT as one of the prime examples of technology convergence today.
[via Cadalyst]
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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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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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National Instruments - Startup to Stardom
Monday, August 21st, 2006
The Austin American-Statesman has an article today in the business section featuring local Austin, TX company National Instruments.
Dr. James Truchard, the CEO of National Instruments Corp., gives a little insight into how the company began and its hopes that the LEGO Mindstorms NXT will give it the household name it deserves.
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