First Annual Thanksgiving RoboParade
Thursday, November 23rd, 2006
Here’s a video to the first Annual Thanksgiving Autonomous Robot Parade held at Lawrence Tech University.
30 robotic floats created by grade students participated in the first event. Robots were made by 27 Lego RCXs, 2 Lego NXTs, and one Boe-Bot.
Posted in video, news, events | No Comments »
RoboRealm Machine Vision for NXT
Wednesday, November 8th, 2006
The talented folks at RoboRealm have added a module that provides machine vision capabilities to the LEGO Mindstorms NXT. This free software allows you to control your robots from a PC over a Bluetooth connection, and with a wireless camera, a digitizer, and a little VBScript, gives you the ability to incorporate machine vision to do some pretty cool things.
To demonstrate, RoboRealm hooked up a wireless camera to a TriBot and programmed it to use machine vision to help find a blue ball, pick it up, and move it to an orange cone. Take a look at the videos below to see the robot in action. A comprehensive tutorial is also available to get you started.
Video of robot view:
Video of 3rd-person perspective:
Posted in video, development, news, software, hacking | 25 Comments »
Meet the NXTMECH
Friday, November 3rd, 2006
Forum member, SickBrick, has posted information about his newest LEGO Mindstorms NXT robot called NXTMECH — a biped using two intelligent bricks and six (thanks Edwin) motors. Very cool. Pictures and video available!
I was never really a fan of chicken walkers, but hey, they’re a lot easier to build than humanoid bipeds.
the mechanics are pretty simple. The motor is pretty much directly connected to the joint at the hips. at the knees they’re connected to one gear and at the ankle its a worm gear with some gear reduction. and then somehow just get them nxt bricks on there - which i should modify so you can add the rechargeable batteries. but its ok.
programming on the other hand, is nothing short of a college level trial and error, mathematics and physics set of equations. getting it to walk will take me some time. on one of my videos, i got it to stand up and the other to lean left and right..without falling over. (which has happened many times already)
Posted in video, projects | 6 Comments »
NXT Robot Holds’em and Deals’em
Wednesday, November 1st, 2006
I love Texas Hold’em Poker, folks. In this video, the builder of this robot (and likely also an ardent poker buff) demonstrates how his robot deals poker hands to five players. And this video shows the robot dealing from a different angle. Maybe in future versions, the builder can add rotation to deal to players around a table.
Anybody up for building a card shuffler? Or even a robot that shuffles up AND deals!? Then we’d be set! Nobody ever enjoys being the dealer, so this would be a lifesaver. 
Posted in video, projects | 1 Comment »
Evansville Wakes Up to NXT
Thursday, October 26th, 2006
Instructional Technologist Steven Combs joins Sean McHose on Fox 7 in Evansville, IN, to demonstrate the LEGO Mindstorms NXT.
The system had been out for about three months and I was aware of its development while a LEGO Ambassador with secret “in the know” information. It was one of those secrets you really wanted to get out tell everyone about so it was good to get a chance to finally play with the system and then demonstrate its capabilities on the air.
See the video.
[via Combsing Through the Minutia]
Posted in video, news | 58 Comments »
‘Yo robot, get me a soda!’
Wednesday, October 25th, 2006
Another interesting video on YouTube…
The Media Factory wrote, directed, edited, produced and filmed this video podcast for Lego Minstroms [sic] NXT robot division. Lego wanted to market Lego Robots to a cool urban audience. We put our man Lee West on the job and he came up with the “Bro’bot.”
[via Media Factory]
Posted in video | 3 Comments »
A Halloween Hand
Wednesday, October 25th, 2006
I find this video absolutely hilarious. Trick-or-Treaters beware!
Posted in video, projects | 4 Comments »
Jim German’s Motocube.com
Wednesday, October 25th, 2006
Forum member, Jaguar, has posted a link to his new LEGO Mindstorms NXT website at Motocube.com. I have added it to our blogroll. The latest content features video clips of the prototypes he has built for the NXTasy challenge. Check it out!
Posted in video, projects, news | No Comments »
JNXT: Gesture-based NXT Controller
Wednesday, September 6th, 2006
Stefano Sanna has created an application that allows him to control his LEGO Mindstorms NXT from a PDA. Gestures on the PDA’s touchscreen translate into commands sent over bluetooth to his robotic vehicle. See the video.
Posted in video, projects | 2 Comments »
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.
Posted in video, projects, events | No Comments »
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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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.
Posted in video, events | 14 Comments »
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.
Posted in general, video, events | No Comments »
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.
Posted in video, hardware, news, events | 1 Comment »