The NXT STEP - LEGO® MINDSTORMS® NXT Blog

NXT camera dolly

2012-01-27T02:13:00.001-05:00

Whenever I made images and movies of my NXT robots previously, I always have been unsatisfied with the quality of my recordings. Hence, I decided to build a stable camera stand to avoid at least wiggly images.Of course, as a NXT builder I ended up not with a simple stand but with a programmable camera car on rails (which is, as I learned, in lingo called a "camera dolly"):

I am still lacking the skills to produce such excellent robot movies like some of my NXT colleagues; but at least I might be able to make some with smoother tracking shots now.

Debugging with the NXT screen: Displaying numbers

2012-01-26T14:36:00.010-05:00

If you're a programmer like me, your programs won't work perfectly when you run them the first time. Sometimes it's a simple mistake on the programmer's part, but sometimes the problem is not so obvious.

In some cases you can analyze part of your program by displaying some of the program's variables on the NXT screen. For example, you can do this to determine whether a sensor works or not.

Displaying such a number on the NXT screen is not very difficult, but it can be a bit cumbersome if there's multiple things you would like to display. To make it a little easier I'd like to share an old trick (a My Block) that will make it simple to do this.

The NXT screen will show "Sensor: 47" if the ultrasonic sensor measures 47.

Installation Instructions
- Just open the packed example program:

Click here to download. Be sure to open it with the Mindstorms software, not as a zip archive! Alternatively, use "Right Click" and click "Save as" first. The My Block is included and will automatically be added to your other My Blocks.

Using the block
- Run the example to test your block and try it out. (Then just skip the info below).

- Use the "Number to Display" setting to specify the number you would like to display. You would normally supply the value through a Data Wire as in the example.

- "Text Line (0-7)" specifies on which line the number should be displayed. 0 is at the top of the NXT screen, 7 is at the bottom.

- "Text (Optional)" lets you optionally add some text to the number. This is useful if there's multiple things you want to display on the screen. For example, putting "Sensor:" in the example results in "Sensor: 47" on the NXT screen if the value is 47.

- The block will always erase the text line in question before showing something new, but you can check the "Clear Screen (Yes/No)" to empty the whole screen if necessary.

---

Update: Steve Hassenplug reminded me of a custom NXT block (Not a My Block) that he made that does just the same (find it here).

Whether you want to use this block or the My Block is up to you. Steve's block can nicely be added to your other Action blocks, right next to the Display Block if you wish. The My Block on the other hand is easier to share because the person you share it with does not have to install a custom NXT block.

RobertaLAB | CAD Animation

2012-01-25T23:49:00.001-05:00

Cool CAD animation of the Roberta Ant included in Roberta Series 1 - NXT.

158 parts to make this ant designed by A. Green

I: /. 7.

NXT yoghurt opener

2012-01-25T01:53:00.000-05:00

Nice little NXT device by pasquentmax that opens a typical yoghurt container. I'm sure you could adapt the approach to a bunch of other food packaging.

Google gives back - to NXT

2012-01-23T05:22:00.000-05:00

Every year around Christmas Google sponsors with 40 million $ some projects around the globe in areas that are close to the heart of the company: education in science and technology, education for girls, promotion of technology and projects against human trafficking and modern slavery.

In 2011 gone by, there was a NXT-based project amongst them!
The German project Roberta is an initiative by the Fraunhofer Institut that aims to promote interest and education of girls in science and technology by using LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT.

The NXT STEP that has now and then blogged about Roberta in the past wishes to compliment Roberta for that achievement and acknowledgment of its great work.
Cudos!

The Dynaway Sorting Plant

2012-01-19T14:02:00.001-05:00

From the guys who brought you the C5 NXT Blimp, have a look at this awesome industrial color and size sorting plant commissioned by Dynaway. This model is used to demonstrate their manufacturing execution system.

It sorts 2x4 and 1x2 bricks in size and color. The bricks get sorted directly into pallets in a high bay storage system. When a new color is detected, an empty pallet in the high bay storage is assigned to the color. When a pallet is full, a robot retrieves it, and returns a new empty pallet.

There are 7 NXT’s in the plant, and they all communicate with each other and a PC application over Bluetooth. The software written in leJOS, with is a java language for MINDSTORMS®.

Full details can be found on the BrickIt team's website

Skype Car - Follow up statistics

2012-01-19T04:16:00.001-05:00

Leon have just finished his initial Skype Car experiment and followed up with some great statistics.

Here is the original post we published - http://thenxtstep.blogspot.com/2012/01/skype-controlled-robot-yes-you-can.html

He kept it running for a 2 weeks and got people from all over the world connecting in.

700 people having a go
Average 4 minutes per connection
Over 20 countries

Get the full run down of statistics from his latest post -
http://worldofmindstorms.com/2012/01/18/skype-car-lots-of-numbers/

Congrats Leon, can't wait to see what you do next!

NXC tutorial in Portuguese

2012-01-18T02:33:00.004-05:00

A good new for the Portuguese followers of the NXT STEP!
The NXC tutorial I originally wrote with John Hansen back in 2007 has been translated
also in Portuguese. Divirta-se!

MINDSENSORS Touch Panel Library for LejOS

2012-01-14T11:16:00.004-05:00

The advanced users of the NXT could be happy to know that I wrote
the library to easily manage all the features of the NXT Touch Panel sensor device by MINDSENSORS. It is available from the Lejos SVN repository and in the next release of LejOS NXJ.

Google Science Fair 2012

2012-01-14T10:11:00.002-05:00

Google has announced the Google Science Fair 2012, the largest Online Science competition in the world which takes place in partnership with The LEGO Group, CERN, National Geographic and Scientific American.
Any youngster between 13 and 18 years, either alone or in teams up to for persons, can take part and hand in his or her Science project, presenting it on its own Google web site.
At the end, the best projects will be awarded with great prizes.

At the first Science Fair last year, over 7500 projects were handed in from 90 different countries, with a lot of LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT amongst them.
Take part!
This is how you enter:

Lesson plans from Dexter Industries

2012-01-13T21:06:00.001-05:00

Dexter Industries (who makes all kids of cool NXT sensors) has just submitted a few lesson plans / ideas to http://www.k12lab.com (an part of National Instruments who created NXT-G in conjunction with LEGO)

So far they've submitted lessons for:

Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIR) -Measuring Heat from a Laptop exhaust fan -
http://www.k12lab.com/lesson-plans/Monitor-Computer-w-NXT-TIR

and their Solar Panel - Constructing a Solar Car
http://www.k12lab.com/lesson-plans/NXT-Solar-Car

They've included sample programs for LabView for LEGO Mindstorms (LVLM), but even if you're not using that language, you could adapt to NXT-G or any other one.

NXTAVATAR a Tele-presence robot

2012-01-13T00:07:00.000-05:00

The NXTAVATAR is a Tele-presence robot which is visually remote controlled using the internet.

It is easily build. You need: a LEGO® MINDSTORMS® 2.0 set, an iPhone® 4 (or other Smartphone) with Skype® installed, a Windows PC with Skype® installed, 2 Skype® accounts and 2 NXTAVATAR programs (which are open source). You can download building instructions & NXTAVATAR programs at www.nxtavatar.com. You can easily adjust the robot and programs to fit your own demands.
Have fun!

Below are the controls as seen on the PC side, The frame in red is what is shared on the mobile device via Skype screen sharing.

Features
- Remote control using the internet
- Face to face interaction
- Full audio & video communication
- Moves forward & backward
- Turns left & right
- Looks up & down
- Gets & drops small objects

It was created by Andreas (NXTwallet) the father of the first transformable NXT WALL-E, and a good friend of mine, I was thrilled when he asked me if i wanted to try his NXTAVATAR!!! He lives in the Netherlands but thanks to his new LEGO Mindstorms robot, i was able to visit his house, meet his family and play with his dog bobby ;)

Here is me, bazmarc, on the NXTAVATAR thousands of miles across earth!!!

NXT + HMI/SCADA interface

2012-01-12T21:45:00.000-05:00

Leistungsfähiger Panel PC für Standard-Industrieanwendungen by Green_Mamba
Attribution-NoDerivs License

SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) is a robotics system that is found in factories and industry around the world. It takes in sensor information from sensors and then coordinates processes to make things happen. Think BMW's car factory as the chassis are moved from workstation to workstation.

COPADATA is a company the specialises in SCADA software and they have put together an interface with the NXT. This means you can program in any of the IEC 61131-3 languages (typical SCADA programming languages) and then run the code on a NXT device. This sounds like a great way to test out your code before putting it out onto multi-million dollar industrial robots :)

You can write programs that interface with the motors and all standard sensors as well as Gyro, Accelerometer and Compass.

I haven't had the chance to give it a go (you need to order their free software DVD), but it certainly looks like a great way for universities / colleges to teach SCADA with low-cost hardware.

http://www.copadata.com/index.php?id=1838

Thanks to Olov who brought this to my attention!

Huge mobile robot arm

2012-01-09T17:15:00.000-05:00

One of our readers Aris just sent through this enormous robot arm he has been working on.

It manages to lift a cup of water (heavy glass, not light plastic!) off a table, and then follow a black line through the house setting the cup down on another table.

Some quick specs

Total weight: 4.2kg
Maximum load: 1kg
7 Motors (NXT and PowerFunctions)
1 NXT
1 RCX
Pneumatic Gripper

Fantastic work Aris!

Usage of NXT at the NASA

2012-01-09T04:14:00.000-05:00

On brickengineer.com, there's a nice online article today on the usage of LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT for prototyping at the NASA: the KnuthLab LEGO Exploration Rover developed by the Knuth Cyberphysics Lab acts

"as a testbed for robotic intelligence and navigation software",

as the page states.

Read the full article here.

Skype controlled Robot (yes you can drive it!)

2012-01-07T16:38:00.001-05:00

One of our readers Leon just sent me through this amazing project he's been working on.

He has built an NXT robot that you (yes you!) can control over Skype. It's set up to work between now and January 18th and I'm just had a great time making it cruise around Leon's setup.

How it works.

You make a call to Leon (details at the bottom of the post)
You share your screen with Leon
The Webpage has 4 buttons (forward, left, right, stop)
Each time you click a button, your screen changes to a different shade of grey.
A NXT with light sensor at Leon's end picks up what colour you have (because you're sharing a screen) and then transmit via blue tooth to the NXT robot what to do.

Leon has a great writeup on his blog with lots of technical details on how he achieved it.

http://worldofmindstorms.com/2012/01/04/interactive-skype-controlled-mindstorms-nxt-car/

Hopefully we'll get an update from Leon when it's finished with some stats about how many people connected, what the average length of connection was etc!

My Wonderful Steam NXT

2012-01-06T12:33:00.000-05:00

During the days around New Year, I have performed a finger exercise in LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT Steampunk: the Wonderful Steam NXT. It can be built with a single NXT 2.0 set and three Rotacaster® wheels:

A Rotacaster® wheel allows for movement in two directions; they are produced and sold by the Australian Rotacaster® company and compatible to LEGO®. For the Wonderful Steam NXT, Rotacaster sponsored three of them (Thanks, Rotacaster!) , which enables it to turn on the spot.

I like these wheels a lot - they are reliable, very useful for building holonomic mobile robots (have a look at previous posts on our blog for further examples of NXT robots equipped with them) and last but not least look cool.

Update: Building instructions for the vehicle can be found on my web site.

NXT biped from China

2012-01-05T04:47:00.000-05:00

Here's a new great biped walker created by the team of the Chinese NXT blog cmnxt.com:

Some more pictures can be found here.

LabView for LEGO Mindstorms

2012-01-04T08:14:00.000-05:00

Along with the popular NXT-G and NXC(RobotC) programming languages there is LabView for LEGO Mindstorms (LVLM). Those who played with RoboLab in the RCX days will find it very familiar.

Rob Torok spent some time at Tufts University working with LVLM and has put together a series of great tutorials to get people up and running. For those of you possibility hitting the limits of NXT-G, LVLM is certainly a good step up in capability.

Here is the first tutorial and you can see all of them here -https://sites.google.com/site/robtorok/lvlm-tutorials/

More info about LVLM here - http://www.k12lab.com/products/NI-LabVIEW/

NXT-ified LEGO Crane

2012-01-04T02:00:00.000-05:00

Loyal reader Justin Chan just sent through his conversion of the LEGO Technic 8421 model 2. He's done an excellent job and by the looks of it has crammed a lot in such a tiny space. It still has all the original functions of driving, steering, rotating / lifting/ extending the boom arm and even lowering the ground supports.

Looks likes he's got the Mindsensors Motor Mux to get all 6 motors to talk to the 1 NXT onboard.

The whole thing is controlled by another NXT connected via bluetooth.

All this from a secondary school student. Well done Justin!

NXT Bowling alley

2012-01-03T20:09:00.001-05:00

Not the most intricate of constructions but I love how the pins are reset, so clever!

via @dexterind

*** UPDATED ***
A much more refined version using the same priciple - Thanks Philo!!

Top NXT creations for 2011

2012-01-02T18:44:00.002-05:00

So here it is..... The most popular NXT creations for 2011 (as determined by pageviews from our amazing readers!)

#5 - UNIMOG NXTification by Anika

http://thenxtstep.blogspot.com/2011/08/unimog-nxtification-by-anika.html

#4 - CubeStormer II: A NXT machine that solves a Rubik's Cube faster than any human

http://thenxtstep.blogspot.com/2011/10/nxt-machine-that-solvesa-rubiks-cube.html

#3 - MindCuber: Build a Rubik's Cube Solver with a single NXT 2.0 set!

http://thenxtstep.blogspot.com/2011/11/mindcuber-build-rubiks-cube-solver-with.html

#2 - LEGO® MINDSTORMS digital clock

http://thenxtstep.blogspot.com/2011/10/lego-mindstorms-digital-clock.html

And the most popular creation (with double the pageviews of #2) goes to....

#1 - Amazing Mindstorms 3D printer

http://thenxtstep.blogspot.com/2011/08/amazing-mindstorms-3d-printer.html

Which was your favourite? Let us know in the comments!

Countdown for Possible NXT Tool on Kickstarter

2012-01-02T18:08:00.005-05:00

The NXT comes with a nice collection of sensors that most Mindstorms fans, kids and adults, have figured out. Most anyone who has spent any time tinkering with NXT robots has figured out how to use the Touch, Ultrasonic, Sound, and Light sensors among others. You build your robot, program it, and run it... and watch the results, whether it's avoiding walls, following a line, or catching a ball.

But as with most NXT robots, the robot is typically running while you're in the room, so to speak. Many have designed robots to automate certain tasks while the owner is away, but it's not the norm. Yes, our NXT robots are autonomous, but they more often than not require a human presence close by to monitor the action. For anyone wanting to give their robot real autonomy and an ability to communicate with its owner no matter where that owner may be... well, that's been complicated. Yes, you can do it, but it often requires some serious electronics skill to wire up a separate circuit that can communicate via Twitter or maybe posting data to an HTML website. What's been needed for a while is the ability for our NXTs to let us know what's going on when we're no where close by... maybe even on the opposite side of the globe. Imagine wanting to build a small NXT device that detects when your bedroom door is opened (or closed) using a Touch sensor or maybe the Ultrasonic sensor and alerts you with a text or email message. Again, not so easy to do with a basic NXT kit.

Until now.

If you've got a nice collection of sensors for your NXT, you might be interested to know that a new Kickstarter project has a device that's being funded (with your help) that will allow your NXT to communicate with you via email, text messaging, and a few other options. It's called Twine, and it's a small, battery operated device (waterproof, too) that has a built-in motion sensor and temperature sensor. You configure the "rules" for the sensors using an online, cloud-based application the Twine team has created called Spool.

Let's consider the idea I mentioned above -- a detection device that lets you know when your bedroom door is opened. You'll first want to build a robot that will detect that door being opened using maybe the Touch or Ultrasonic sensor. Easy enough. But here's the trick -- you'll also want to build a small, flat bed on your robot that will rock left or right when the door is opened. On this bed you'll place the Twine device that you've configured to send you a text message (or an email) when the built-in motion detector is triggered. How easy is that?

Twine developers are busy creating a number of other sensors that will be able to be plugged into the basic Twine device, but you'll also be happy to know that they're offering a breakout board add-on that will allow external sensors to be wired in -- you probably won't want to break open your NXT sensors and expose the wiring, but... you can. With the breakout board, I imagine someone would be able to easily wire Mindstorms sensors directly to the Twine device.

But if you prefer not to open up your sensors, the Twine device by itself offers up lots of options:

1. Use the Light sensor and the previously mentioned "flat bed" to trigger the Twine when the Light sensor detects a light being turned on and get a text message sent to your phone.

2. Use the Ultrasonic sensor and "flat bed" to trigger the Twine's motion sensor when the Ultrasonic sensor detects the food level in your dog's bowl is too low. When it gets low, you get an email saying "FEED ME!"

3. Want to know if your little brother or sister disturbed something in your room? Put it on top of a Touch sensor that triggers a slight movement of the Twine and have a Tweet sent to your Twitter account telling the world "My nosy brother/sister just picked up my guitar."

As the Twine team releases more and more sensors (a few are already in the works, including an IR sensor) you can expect the Twine device to open up a lot more options for your NXT robots to communicate with you while you're away. Yes, the NXT isn't doing the actual communication, but if you've built a solid robot that can trigger whatever sensor (motion, temp, IR, etc) is connected to the Twine, you can rest easy knowing you'll get a text or email or Twitter message letting you know that something has occurred while you were away.

Now, the basic Twine is $99... not cheap. But then again, neither is the NXT. If you've been looking for a way to give your NXT robots a way to "talk" to you when you're not around, this is definitely one of the easiest ways to do it. At the $115 level of backing, you get the breakout board... higher levels provide you with additional sensors. But the basic Twine at $99 will automatically provide you with temp and motion sensors built into the actual device.

Now here's the bad news -- the Twine Kickstarter project only has 17 hours left as I write this... less by the time you're reading it. They've already raised enough money for the device to be built and shipped, so all that's left is to get more backers who want to get one (or more) before the time expires. The team hasn't said when the Twine will be sold to the public yet, so this may be your only chance to grab one without having to wait a long time. Delivery of the Twine device is estimated to be in March 2012, and I've already got my backing in place to grab one (with the breakout board).

I'll be interested to hear what others think they might use the Twine to do in collaboration with an NXT robot.

You can read complete details of the project here as well as watch some videos.

NXT High Noon Duel

2012-01-02T02:57:00.003-05:00

Quoting Back to the Future II:
Marty McFly: [showing the two boys how to play the shoot 'em up video game] I'll show you, kid. I'm a crack shot at this.
[shoots a perfect score with the electronic gun]
Video Game Boy #1: You mean you have to use your hands?
Video Game Boy #2: That's like a baby's toy!
Well, this is not at all a baby's toy! That's the kind of projects I love: simple, and effective!

You can challenge yourself, measuring your reflexes, or play with a friend,
to see who is the fastest. You can build it and program it
using the material the author shares on his website.
REMEMBER! Guns are not toys at all. Play safe, play well, play with LEGO!

A subjective NXT retrospective to 2011

2011-12-30T03:34:00.000-05:00

2011 is drawing to an end, and it's a tradition to have a look back at this time of the year. With THE NXT STEP, the focus of such a retrospective naturally is on LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT; so I thought about my very personal annual highlights in that regard.

It was an amazing NXT year, to be sure!
After being 5 years on the market now, instead of cooling down LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT seems to gain even more momentum every year.

Hence, there are a lot of candidates for "The NXT Model of the Year 2011", and most likely everyone will have his or her very special favorite.
As for me, I did not have to ponder long over the one I personally like best: the outstanding Blimp of the two Danish NXT dudes Lasse and Kenneth (see left). A great project, even more when one had the privilege to face it "in realiter" (as it was granted to me at WRO).

From there, it is not far to my very personal "NXT Photo of the Year 2011"; it shows Lasse helping an Arab boy controlling the Blimp at said WRO in Abu Dhabi - a photo that in my opinion notably conveys the spirit of LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT.

So, what's your personal "NXT Model of the Year 2011"? Or your "NXT Photo of the Year"?
Tell us!

NXT-based camera platform

2011-12-29T07:39:00.002-05:00

Some members of the Chinese NXT blog cmnxt.com have published a nice video on a NXT based camera platform:

Addendum: More details can be found on the camera platform's associated web page at cmnxt.com.

Super cool robots by the Festo AG

2011-12-28T12:06:00.001-05:00

Created by the German company Festo AG (yes, they are real!):

Not NXT, but could not help posting them as some sort of inspiration for your NXT work.

Enjoy!

Another NXT-based remote control

2011-12-27T12:30:00.000-05:00

For the Hubble Telescope that I displayed at the WRO in November, I created and used a particular NXT-based remote control. Its two levers allow for control of a remote NXT model in three dimensions, with three touch sensors for triggering additional functions (controlling the solar panels and the lid case of the telescope). A color sensor might be used to display the connection state of the remote control.
Have a look at the associated web site; you will find also the LEGO Digital Designer file there in case you are interested to build and use it.

Christmas baubles painted with the NXT

2011-12-25T03:57:00.001-05:00

At the World Robot Olympiad I met a team from St. Petersburg in Russia. They had created a very nice NXT robot called "Robot Decorator" that is able to paint Christmas baubles (and balloons):

Interfacing the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT and Android Phone: Camera Line Follower

2011-12-23T17:02:00.003-05:00

Now that we're on break, I had some time to do another demo in the series; this video shows a robot using the Android phone's camera to locate the line and follow it. The connection is based on Bluetooth, and all that is sent is the line's distance from "the center" of the received image. Around near 0:57, you can see the yellow dash that marks the position of the line. This is subtracted from the center of the screen (width/2) and sent to the NXT, which adjusts the motor speeds proportionally using the steering function. The bright light that creates a glare in the screen is actually the flash on the camera, which I turned on in order to eliminate outside lighting conditions. The phone is almost as good, if not better, as a light sensor!

Enjoy, and happy building!

Richard

Merry Christmas

2011-12-22T17:11:00.002-05:00

From everyone here at theNXTstep, we'd love to wish you, your family and all your friends a very Merry Christmas (a happy holidays for those of you who do not celebrate Xmas :D ), and a Happy New Year.

Thank you for being such loyal readers, and keep those tips and stories coming in!

We're looking forward to an exciting 2012, bringing you the latest and greatest NXT creations from around the world.

WRO revisited

2011-12-22T03:23:00.003-05:00

There's a new nice web page by MCP Mike Brandl on the sojourn of the "Robotics Experts" at the World Robot Olympiad in Abu Dhabi four weeks ago.

Have a look and enjoy a lot of cool photos that convey both the most inspiring and pleasant ambience of the event as well as the great spirit in our team.

NXTified Gingerbread

2011-12-20T20:18:00.001-05:00

Who said NXT robots and delicious Christmas treats don't mix??

Big thanks to Fredrik for sending us this!

Flying robot bird

2011-12-20T07:40:00.001-05:00

Not exactly NXT, but certainly inspiring and worthwhile to post:
a flying robot bird created by the German company Festo.

The NXT Lord of the Rings?

2011-12-19T07:36:00.000-05:00

Nazgul NXT robot, anyone?

CATROID : Scratch for Android

2011-12-12T12:14:00.005-05:00

For who loves graphical programming languages, like NXT-G, I signal
an interesting growing project: CATROID.
CATROID, brother of Google App Inventor,
takes its steps from MIT-developed SCRATCH programming language,
and implements some blocks to control the NXT brick via Bluetooth!
It is still a bit limited, but it's the first on-phone graphical programming
language for the NXT. Even the textual programmers should be quite excited.

NXT 2.0 Snatcher Video

2011-12-11T15:42:00.004-05:00

I recently filmed the Snatcher (building instructions in the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 Discovery Book) at one of the events I was attending, and thought it would be fun to share this video with you. In this video you'll see the Snatcher running the program as presented in the book: autonomously looking for an object, grabbing it and lifting it.

Hispabrick Volume 12

2011-12-05T03:06:00.001-05:00

Jetro and his team have just release Hispabrick 12. It is a fantastic online magazine (available in both Spanish and English) that is crammed full of LEGO news. While it covers everything LEGO (and I mean everything!) there is a fantastic writeup of Steve Hassenplug's Super RoboRally. We've cover RoboRally in the past, but this is a much more comprehensive writeup.

There is also an extremely in-depth analysis of all the LEGO motors ever produced (13 in total!)

You can download the PDF here- http://www.hispabrickmagazine.com/ (look for the English PDF on the right)

(yes that house is completely made of LEGO!)

What's on your holiday shopping list?

2011-12-04T07:20:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, as I searched the Web for Christmas and birthday gift ideas, I came across these cute robotic salt and pepper shakers at uncommongoods.com and it struck me that y'all probably know of some cool gift ideas.

What is on your gift list (or wish list) this year? An additional NXT? An Education Resource Set?

What are some less expensive but desirable ways to supplement an NXT set? (LEGO Education is loaded with individual parts and packs of parts). Is there such a thing as a gift certificate for Bricklink? Do you have a favorite NXT book to recommend? Favorite one-kit models? Can you recommend a non-NXT book which compliments and broadens the understanding of NXT robotics? Can you warn us about a product that doesn't live up to its claims?

Do you know of a fun, inexpensive, and unique robotic gift (like these salt and pepper shakers) that is available online? Do you have do-it-yourself ideas for NXT jewelry or other household accessories? Please inspire us!

NOTE: In the spirit of transparency, please tell us if you have a financial interest in any product you recommend. Also, the "You might also like" stuff added to the bottom of this post are not my suggestions!

How to use MINDSTORMS to max-out your gaming character

2011-12-01T08:36:00.001-05:00

Now here's a application of LEGO® MINDSTORMS to a new part of our daily life: YouTube user comicsacrifice built a simply NXT-driven machine that operates a game controller to restore his Skyrim video game character's health to maximum.

Don't you ever say again that LEGO® MINDSTORMS isn't useful in real life...

Next step would be a NXT robot that plays the whole game for you while you go out for a refreshing stroll in the woods. ;)

40% off LEGO (NXT) Books

2011-11-30T13:25:00.003-05:00

All No Starch Press print books and ebooks will be 40% off until midnight, December 3rd. They have a lot of LEGO books, including the recently published "Cult of LEGO" and the "LEGO TECHNIC Idea Books".

All their NXT books are priced just under $18. Information and the discount code are found here.

The Queboid shooter

2011-11-30T04:11:00.001-05:00

Remember Mark Crosbie's great Queboid?
He has published building instructions now for a shooter version of it (below, there's a video of the Queboid shooter in action at WRO).
That's certainly one of the robots I am going to rebuild during Christmas holidays.

Express-Bot: A Simple Modular Robot for the 9797 Set

2011-11-29T13:18:00.009-05:00

I frequently hear from teachers and other users who have only the LEGO Education NXT Base Set (9797), looking for building instructions and an alternative to the standard Robot Educator Model (REM) design that is included in the LEGO Education software. Many are looking for a base robot design that is quick and easy to build but flexible enough to use in a variety of lessons and other activities. As an educator myself, I often have a need for such as design as well. So I recently developed and posted a design to try to fill this need.

The Express-Bot is a simple robot vehicle with several modular attachments that can be individually built, selected, and combined, and everything can be built using a single 9797 set (I also resisted using the "Hassenpins" that were added to the new 9797 set, so that everything can still be built using only the original 9797 set, which lacked these). Designs for several simple attachments are included, using all of the standard sensors and the 3rd motor in several ways. Here is a page of ideas showing some of the many ways to combine and use the attachments. Of course it would be easy for users to customize or design their own attachments as well.

Three Ways to Build

Teachers know that it is important to try to keep all students challenged (and thus interested), while still providing help as necessary. For some students, building a model from step-by-step instructions is "too easy", but there are usually other students that will need them. Most students are somewhere in between. In addition, teachers have practical concerns such as often needing print-friendly building instructions, but with a desire to save paper and ink as well.

To try to address these needs, for Express-Bot, I have formatted the building instructions in a new way. For each module, there is a one page view of the completed module. Experienced builders can challenge themselves to build the modules using only these views (by "reverse engineering" them). Then for each module there is an additional one page of "building hints" (partially disassembled views). Most users will be able to build the modules using just the hints plus the completed views (which together is only one double-sided sheet per module). Finally, for the driving base, step-by-step instructions on 6 pages are also provided for print or online use. All instructions are provided in PDF form for compact and easy printing if necessary (can be used online as well), and a PowerPoint format is also provided to allow teachers to easily create their own custom handouts by selecting only the pages they need and editing as desired. Permission is given to print and redistribute freely.

Some Design Goals

In addition to the new approach on building instructions, Express-Bot has a number of other design goals, many of which are practical concerns that teachers and others may appreciate, such as:

Fast to build (under 15 minutes for the driving base)
Compact and sturdy, slips easily into a backpack or purse
Choice of fixed skid wheel or castor wheel
Screen faces user at send-off
Battery, charge port, and USB all easy to get to

I don't have programming instructions specifically for Express-Bot posted (it is designed to be used in a large variety of ways, and I encourage users to make their own programs). However, for those wanting to see some example programs, many of the programs designed for the Multi-Bot project and available on CD will work with some or no modification for Express-Bot, or at least provide a starting point for learning.

Chinese NXT blog

2011-11-29T10:50:00.001-05:00

On WRO, I have met some incredibly smart Chinese children, alongside with their very friendly coaches.
They hinted me to a Chinese NXT blog called CMNXT.COM.
As luck will have it, they posted some images and reproduced Mark Crosbie's video of the "Robotics Experts" booth lately (feel free to use Google translation utility here).

While THE NXT STEP is a english-speaking blog, we need to recall now and then that there are a lot of NXT communities out there who converse and think in other languages than that.

Beautiful PID explanation video

2011-11-28T22:41:00.001-05:00

One of our great readers Ivan just sent this through to me.

He has created a video explaining how a PID (proportional / integral / derivative ) controller works and shows an example of it running on a simple NXT robot towards the end.

Now the video is in Portugese (who says we don't cater for the international audience! :D) and although I've only done a semester of learning Spanish at university, I was able to keep track of what was going on.

Even if I didn't understand any of the writing (he goes through a *lot* of post-it notes!), it was still great fun to watch, the style, pace and music of it just perfect. I loved the little things that happen throughout, such as running out of room to write and having to add another post-it, and trying (unsuccessfully) to attach the NXT with masking tape :)

Ivan's offering to put in English subtitles, so if you're interested, please make a comment!

**EDIT: Ivan has added English subtitles! :) **

TheNXTstep on twitter!

2011-11-28T05:44:00.001-05:00

Well we've finally made the jump to twitter! This twitter account will feed from all the stories that are posted here on the blog and is another excellent way to keep up to date with all the latest NXT related news.

Follow us here - www.twitter.com/thenxtstep

or click this fancy button Follow @thenxtstep

A NXT model of the Curiosity rover

2011-11-27T04:07:00.001-05:00

Yesterday, the NASA has launched the new Mars rover Curiosity. The car-size robot spacecraft is the most sophisticated Mars space probe ever and expected to land on the Red Planet in August next year.
For the launch event, MCP Will Gorman created a NXT model of Curiosity that was on display yesterday in Kennedy Space Center:

New video by Isogawa san

2011-11-26T03:36:00.001-05:00

Yoshihito Isogawa from TOSHIBA smart community, the author of a variety of cool LEGO® books, has (together with the LEGO® Certified Professional Junpei Mitsui) published a very well-made video on making a LEGO® condonium with a NXT-driven mill:

A little late but Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-25T17:27:00.001-05:00

Check out this cool NXT turkey made by MySnailEatsPizza1!!!

:)

"Roboterwesen": new NXT book in German available now

2011-11-25T07:55:00.001-05:00

Har! My publisher sent me the first copies of my new German NXT book right from the oven!

So "Roboterwesen" is available now, with 350 pages and completely in color.
It's mainly meant for NXT beginners and for teachers looking for some book for their NXT classroom lectures.
I decided to write such a one in German, as there are almost no NXT beginners books for youngsters in Germany in their native language.

The "Robotics Experts" at WRO

2011-11-24T06:35:00.001-05:00

MCP Mark Crosbie, well-known for his LEGO® Streetview Car, has published a nice video on the "Robotics Experts" booth at World Robot Olympiad in Abu Dhabi:

MindCuber: Build a Rubik's Cube Solver with a single NXT 2.0 set!

2011-11-23T10:38:00.001-05:00

David Gilday, one of the two creators of the world speed record breaking CubeStormer II, has published a video on his "MindCuber", a new Rubik's Cube solving NXT robot. One of the remarkable things about it: it can be built with a single NXT 2.0 set!

I've seen it in action at the WRO in Abu Dhabi and there are rumours that David is going to publish building instructions for it soon.

World Robot Olympiad: Final Day

2011-11-22T09:32:00.001-05:00

bazmarc's WALL-E - a hit with the kids

Sunday was the final day of the World Robot Olympiad in Abu Dhabi and most of us (including me) have returned to their home countries by now.

It was a fantastic experience and I'd like to address my thanks to all who made it happen.

Stay tuned for upcoming photos and movies from the Robotics experts' booth!

Some images on the competitions can be found on the official WRO facebook page right now.

Dexter Industries: Win a Snowflake dIMU

2011-11-21T09:16:00.003-05:00

This week Dexter Industries will be giving away a "Snowflake dIMU" to one lucky winner. It's a special edition of the dIMU sensor.

“How can I win the Snowflake?
You can win the Snowflake by visiting us on Facebook, and liking Dexter Industries Facebook Page, in the next week. Already like us? You’re entered!"

More details are on their website.

World Robot Olympiad - Day 2

2011-11-20T05:56:00.001-05:00

THE NXT STEP live from the World Robot Olympiad in Abu Dhabi:

Yesterday was Saturday and the second day of the WRO.
Teams were strongly competing in the different tournaments and we also had a busy and most successful day at our booth with many many visitors.

On the picture you see my favourite model amongst all the fantastic ones around here: the Fĺying NXT Blimp made by Robotics Experts Lasse and Kenneth from Denmark.

World Robot Olympiad - Day 1

2011-11-18T22:33:00.001-05:00

THE NXT STEP live from World Robot Olympiad at Abu Dhabi:

Yesterday Friday the teams arrived here and had their day for gearing up. You might imagine the buzzling atmosphere in the exhibition hall; it was great to see all these gifted young people coming from virtually everywhere on the world.
They also were pretty interested in the models at our booth, and, Dear me!, what an amount of clever questions!

Some images can be seen here. There's also a live feed of the tournaments all weekend long.

Segway Source code now available (dIMU and HiTechnic)

2011-11-17T16:12:00.007-05:00

In the past few months I've been working on a renewed RobotC program for a LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Segway.

The current program handles all balancing tasks in the background so you can make the Segway do what you want without worrying about balancing. It supports both the HiTechnic Gyro sensor and the new Dexter Industries dIMU. The complete source and instructions are available on my website.

The older ready to run NXT-G version of the program (only supports HiTechnic Gyro) is also still available.

Many of you have been asking for the source code, so here's a chance to study the balancing algorithm. You may use and edit the code as you like, but don't forget to link to the original code and give credit if you reshare your program.

Update: Just another example of what you could use the code for!

WRO: preparation day

2011-11-17T02:04:00.001-05:00

THE NXT STEP live from World Robot Olympiad:

Being here with on the second day with some of the finest LEGO® robot builders around - and it's feeling great!
Tomorrow, the event will open for visitors, so today we are going to have a lot of preparations to complete.
Some minutes ago, we were shown our booth in the new^* Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. We are firming here as the "The Robotics Experts", officially invited, organized and supported by THE LEGO Group.

^*Actually, most of the buildings around here are pretty new or even still under construction.

Simon & his George

2011-11-14T12:42:00.001-05:00

You may have seen this crazy big robot on Youtube...

After seeing this i was wondering who was behind that awesome creation... Turns out Simon, from the UK, was also quite fascinated by the work I've been doing and has been scrutinizing my 600+ pictures of WALL-E prototyping on my Picasaweb album... Cool, eventually we got to chat on Skype here is a short bio of the man behind George

I'm a Lego Technic builder who has always been fascinated by large robots from films like Terminator, Short Circuit, Robotcop. Since getting my Mindstorms RIS 2.0 kit in 2003, I have taken my job as a programmer and merged it with my Lego hobby. My plan is to build a fully functionally Lego robot that is around the 8ft tall mark! Something people just can't walk past!

I am an active member of Brickish and Eurobricks and often find inspiration from films and random stuff on Youtube. I have built 2 large robots which were shown at the Great Western Lego Show in 2010 / 2011. This is the largest UK non Lego organised show.

Stay tuned for more amazing projects from Simon, below, another prototype video of some big thing he is working on...

I hope we get a chance to met him and his robots at some big LEGO event in the near future... till then you're best bet is to subscribe to his channel. His online name is burf2000 ;)

Cheers
I: /. 7.

World Robot Olympiad

2011-11-13T06:16:00.001-05:00

Starting next Friday the 18^th of November, a great event will take place in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates: the World Robot Olympiad 2011.
For three days, hundreds of teams from all around the world will take part in the competitions there. Next to that, a lot of additional activities, events and talks will add spice for the visitors, last but not least a large exhibition of NXT robots by members of the community.
Some of them are also contributors to THE NEXT STEP (and I'm happy and proud to say that I will be one of them, displaying my NXT Hubble Telescope there :) ).

So, stay tuned! Expect to see a lot of movies and pictures next week and in case we find time and web access, we intend to post even some on-the-spot reports from there.

LEGO STREET VIEW CAR

2011-11-11T21:03:00.001-05:00

We are all familiar with what Google has done with the invention of it's Street View Car.. and we see the result each time we click on Street View* on Google Map! Well Mark Crosbie has recently completed his latest version of the LEGO STREET VIEW CAR and it works pretty much the same way as the real thing... Here is a video showing the history behind this project:

Worth mentioning is that Mark and his LSVC will be present at the World Robotics Olympiad finals held in Abu Dhabi this year -- If you are a WRO finalist and will be present in AD this coming week, be sure to go visit The Robotics Experts booth in the main hall and check this cool Mindstorms creation in action.

More detail on Mark LSVC can be found here: http://www.mastincrosbie.com/Marks_LEGO_projects/LEGO_Projects.html

More details on the WRO can be found here:
http://wroboto.org/en/

* Maybe one day we will be able to see LEGOLAND under Google Map's Street View mode!! :D

WiFi Week - Dexter Industries

2011-11-11T20:11:00.001-05:00

Dexter Industries have just wrapped up a week of WiFi inspired posts aimed at getting you DI WiFi sensor connected to the Interwebs.

I wouldn't say it your typical kid could do it, (it talks about modem AT commands and other scary stuff), but DI have done an amazing job of leading a newbie through the process, one step at a time.

Definitely worth the read if you're interested at all about how these things work. I certainly learnt a lot :)

I love the final instalment where they take a temperature reading, and sent it to a twitter account.
Tweeting NXT's, love it :)

From their website:

Wifi Sensor for LEGO MINDSTORMS ReleaseThe Dexter Industries Wifi sensor for LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT is released! Continue reading →

WIFI Week: Communicating with ComputersThe second installment of Wifi Week at Dexter Industries. Today we’ll be walking you through our example of how to connect to other computers and internet devices with TCP protocol. In this post we use our wifi sensor to make a Lego MINDSTORMS NXT that receives texts.Continue reading →

WIFI Week: PING!Part 3 of our Wifi Week examples: ping! Find the IP address of your favorite website, and then ping it. Got a fast connection? Prove it with Ping! Continue reading →

WIFI Week: Setting Up a WebserverSetting up a webserver for your MINDSTORMS robot can be done now with the Dexter Industries Wifi sensor. A few months back, Botbench setup an incredible example of a webserver. This example is based largely off the work done there. … Continue reading →

Wifi Week: Crank Up The Speed!Communicate between the NXT and the rest of the world faster than you ever have before: unleash the speed of high speed communications with the Wifi Sensor. Continue reading →

WIFI Week: Twitter TemperatureThe final part of our Wifi Week! In this final example, we demonstrate how to send a message to Twitter from your robot. Check out how we use the Wifi Sensor to Tweet the Temperature!Continue reading →

MINDSTORMS Robots at BEEP Copenhagen

2011-11-11T12:38:00.011-05:00

Here is a little impression of the cool robots we have at BEEP.

Come and see it tomorrow and Sunday.
Edit YOU can even win a MINDSTORMS box, 8547 !!

Spelling Game

2011-11-10T21:47:00.001-05:00

I love this video from Tufts University. It show a couple of students from the EN10 subject showing off the spelling game they build for kids.

From what I can tell, each block has a particular colour, and in each slot is a light/colour sensor. The NXT reads in the combination, figures out if it is a valid word (lookup table??). If it is a real word, the little leprechaun moves along the rainbow.

What makes the video for me is the enthusiasm of the (university level) students for a spelling game. Oh, and the green hats :)

Video is embedded from Facebook, so not sure if it'll work.
Direct link here - https://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=180530342035361

BEEP 11-13 Nov. Bella Center Copenhagen Denmark

2011-11-10T02:38:00.008-05:00

From Friday 11 till Sunday 13 November is in the Bella Center Copenhagen an electronic fair, BEEP.
At this show also LEGO MINDSTORMS robots can be found. Come and visit us.

Martyn

More building instructions!

2011-11-09T05:00:00.000-05:00

Thanks to our keen-eyed readers, we have another instalment of building instructions to put up!

In this update, people have submitted an omni-directional robot, 4 legged walking robot, a basketball player and 2 different joystick designs.

Click on the "Building Instructions" tab above to go to all the instructions

Jack-O-bot

2011-11-08T21:48:00.001-05:00

I love this creation by a youngster by the name of Alexander. He's build (possibility with some help of his Dad ;) ) a cool Halloween themed robot. It is also great to see it documented in video, something all budding builders should consider.

While the video is a little long, highlights include:
- Real carved pumpkin
- Eyes that fall out!
- Flashing nose
- Automatic treat dispensing

Cyclops greets the WRO participants

2011-11-08T13:33:00.002-05:00

Months ago, I published a teaser trailer of my latest creation, a semi-humanoid mecha robot called Cyclops. It can walk, gesticulate, talk and understand natural language.
More details will be disclosed after the World Robot Olympiad of Abu Dhabi (18-20 November 2011). After a long wait, a first short video of Cyclops is available to the great public.

TO BE CONTINUED...

NXT robot tracks a person

2011-11-08T11:05:00.001-05:00

YouTube user lesswire1 has posted a nice video of a robot who finds self-fulfillment in looking at its creator wherever he goes.
Remarkable here is the chain of technologies used: an attached IPhone tracks the person and appropriately controls the movements of the NXT robot by sending light signals to the robot's light sensor.

Dexter Industries TIR Sensor

2011-11-07T18:25:00.000-05:00

I've just finished playing around with the new Dexter Industries Thermal Infrared Sensor (TIR).
While Xander did a very nice experiment with RobotC, I was keen to see how well it went with the NXT-G datalogging blocks.

I got some good results, and although it would be nicer if it sampled a little faster than 5Hz and reacted to changes in temperature a little quicker, it was easy to implement and I can see lots of great experiments I could run in class with it.

Full writeup here on my blog - http://www.damienkee.com/home/2011/11/7/dexter-industries-thermal-infrared-temperature-sensor.html

Mindsensors Touch Panel

2011-11-07T00:28:00.002-05:00

Xander's posted a great video of the Mindsensor Touch Panel in action.

He's done some great work developing a framework that allows you to create your own buttons (rather than looking for a specific x,y location).

More info - http://botbench.com/blog/2011/11/05/ui-frame-work-more-button-pushing/

While you're here, feel free to listen to the worlds most annoying Touchpanel based NXT noise creator (the worlds only???? :D )

Remotely controlling NXT robots using leJOS NXJ

2011-11-05T09:28:00.001-05:00

For a project where multiple NXT bricks need to be remotely controlled by a single remote control, I decided to build that control with LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT also, so that one (master) brick would control three other (slave) bricks wirelessly using Bluetooth.
From earlier projects I knew how laborious the programming of something like that is apt to become, in particular with NXT-G; so this time, I decided to use leJOS NXJ, the Java platform for the NXT.
Still, I expected to have to invest quite some amount of time with writing a lot of complex program code, both for the master brick and the three slave NXT bricks.

But far from it!
I'm still quite out of my mind how incredibly ease such a task has become when using the RemoteNXT class that comes with the most previous release 0.9 of leJOS NXJ!
One (!) single line of code, and your master NXT is connected to a remote NXT:

RemoteNXT remoteNXT1 = new NXTRemote("NameOfARemoteNXT",Bluetooth.getConnector().

You do need even have to manually pair the two bricks!
From that point on in your program, you have access to all motors and sensors of the remotely controlled bricks (same as if they were directly plugged into your own remote control brick^*); for instance, to run motor A on the remote brick, just call

remoteNXT1.A.forward();

One can use up to three remote bricks that way at the same time in one single master program.

Now, that's what I call a programming tool for the NXT!
Well done, leJOS guys!

^*Actually, sort of: in the current release, you cannot use all the methods remotely that you have at your disposal in the local context, just the simple ones like forward(), backward and setSpeed()

NXT Books for our German Readers

2011-10-29T06:18:00.004-05:00

While numerous NXT books are available to English readers, there are relatively few of such books published in other languages. Within a few weeks, Matthias Paul Scholz releases a completely new NXT book "Roboterwesen" for German Mindstorms users.

Last summer, a German edition of the NXT Discovery Book came out, entitled "LEGO Roboter". So if German is your first language, you'll now have some more choice in selecting a good book for your NXT (2.0) set.

Laurens' robots on LEGOWORLD

2011-10-27T09:01:00.000-05:00

Laurens Valk, author of the "Discovery Book", has posted a nice video on his robots at LEGOWORLD 2011 just gone by:

Ricardo's LEGO® vending machine

2011-10-24T08:57:00.002-05:00

Ricardo has published a video where he explains how his LEGO® vending machine works that can be admired presently on LEGOWORLD:

Here's another video with a detailed explanation of the inner details.

NXT controlled wheelchair

2011-10-23T11:30:00.000-05:00

I've had the great pleasure of meeting Yaya several times, and her enthusiasm and skill never ceases to amaze me for someone so young. This is her latest project where she uses an NXT and standard sensors in a helment configuration, to control a wheelchair. Her video nicely steps through some of the issues she's had to contend with to get it all up and running.

She's entered it into the Melbourne University Engineering RoboGals competition so if you like it (or any of the other entries), feel free to stop by and vote (http://www.sciencechallenge.com.au/vote.html)

It is so encouraging to see students taking on projects that will ultimately go on to benefit society :)

LEGOWORLD 2011 - Zwolle

2011-10-23T05:07:00.002-05:00

Last year I was extremely privileged to be able to attend LEGO World in Zwolle. This year I am insanely jealous that I couldn't make it but luckily Xander has been taking plenty of video for us :)

Matthias has already posted Day 1 (KiNXT sumo's are cool!) but here is Day 3 and Day 4 (not sure what happened to Day 2.... will need to have a stern word to Xander!)

Highlights for me from these videos were the NXT Blimp and Vending Machine.

Whay if you put together NXT, Android and OPENCV?

2011-10-21T08:33:00.003-05:00

Have you ever thought of using your Android phone as a vision sensor for your NXT robot?
It is possible, putting together Android SDK, OpenCV and MINDdroid: the result is MINDdroidCV. In his page, Richard Szabo describes how to do it. The explaination is a bit techie, but the expert developers will find it a really useful resource. The source code of the project is available from here.

Video on LEGOWORLD 2011

2011-10-21T04:14:00.000-05:00

Xander Soldaat has published a video on the first day of LEGOWORLD:

NXT Segway follows a line

2011-10-17T17:21:00.004-05:00

A few days ago, I blogged about the progress on my NXT Segway with the Dexter Industries IMU. Here's a new video showing how it follows the line on the NXT Test Pad.

I will bring this robot to LEGO World (Netherlands) next weekend. Feel free to come by for a chat! We all speak Dutch and most of us speak Dunglish very well, too.

LEGOWORLD 2011

2011-10-17T08:46:00.002-05:00

Only three days to go for world's largest LEGO® event: LEGOWORLD 2011 in Zwolle (Netherlands).
Starting from next Wednesday, it will last no less than a complete week until 26th of October, providing LEGO of all kind by hundreds of exhibitors, building activities, shops and other spectacles for ten thousands of visitors.

For a impression of how fantastic LEGOWORLD is, have a look at the various posts on the event The NXT STEP has published in the past.

Do not miss it!

A discovery worth mentioning

2011-10-16T22:39:00.000-05:00

When I receive comments on my Youtube videos or someone subscribes to my channel I usually go visit their channel. I love it when I discover another NXT fan and find some amazing new creations. This situation happen to me recently when a comment from hydejump made me discover an interesting robot he is working on. It does not have a name yet, but the 16yo builder from Japan has posted several short video showing the progression of his work and programming.

I particularly like the video below showing how he used 2 Ultrasonic sensors side by side to have the head follow his hand!!

I have sent him a few emails in hopes to get more details of this really cool DALEK-ish looking bot with bubbly eyes. hydejump is new on YT but between his participation to WRO videos, his intriguing NXT snake video and his complex red robot, this is one channel I did not hesitate to subscribe to!!

I: /. 7.

A NXT machine that solves a Rubik's Cube faster than any human

2011-10-15T05:12:00.001-05:00

Remember Cube Stormer one and a half year ago, the MINDSTORMS-driven machine that could solve a Rubik's Cube very fast?
Now, its creators have come out with an enhanced version, called Cube Stormer II. It can solve an arbitrary cube faster than any human:

LEGO® MINDSTORMS digital clock

2011-10-14T07:46:00.002-05:00

Hans Andersson, well-known for his Rubik's Cube - and Sudoku - solving NXT robots, has published a new great creation of his: the Time Twister, a digital clock made from LEGO® MINDSTORMS.

NXT robots in Arabia

2011-10-13T02:40:00.001-05:00

On TheNational, Abu Dhabi's leading English-language news publication, there's an article on education in the United Arab Emirates with LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT.
More than 600 pupils there are preparing for the World Robot Olympiad which in November will take place in Abu Dhabi for the first time.

In the article it says

"Abu Dhabi Education Council (Adec), which organises the national heats, distributed 10 of the kits to each state school in Abu Dhabi last year and has been training teachers to incorporate the kits into their maths, science and technology curriculums."

10 kits to each state school! Isn't that great? I wish we had at least a noticeable percentage of that in our education system here...

Super Robo Rally

2011-10-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

From the same team that did Monster Chess come Super Robo Rally, based on the board game "Robo Rally"

Robo Rally the board game

While it doesn't look like it has as many game pieces as Monster Chess, the game board itself looks considerably larger (That's Monster Chess in the background).

Each one of those game squares is completely LEGO and I'm guessing they're all 32x32 baseplates.

Now 32 x 32 baseplates = 1024 pixels and with 12 x 12 game tiles shown in the video that equals 147,456 pixels. While I don't think they used 1x1's for every pixel, that's still a lot of LEGO!

Steve's blog - http://teamhassenplug.blogspot.com/ has lots more detail about how it was made as well as plenty of great photos. Looks like it was a real hit at Gen-Con and Brickworld.

****Update from Steve Hassenplug himself****
Damien, the baseplates are actually 48x48 or ~330k 'pixels'.
If you look close, the board has an 8-stud 'warning stripe', so that's ~350k.
Including the entire boarder, (14x14x48x48) the whole board is ~450,000 studs, or 17.5'x17.5' or just over 300 square feet.
We estimate the tiles are 1/2 2x2 and 1/2 1x1, which means ~150,000 pieces.
Yes, it makes Monster Chess look small. :)

Touchscreen for NXT?

2011-10-10T03:57:00.000-05:00

Once again Xander has the scoop on upcoming Sensors. This time it's a touchscreen that is placed over the normal screen of the NXT.

He's waiting on an actual prototype but has been able to share a interesting looking CAD model of it.

It looks like the sensor will return the position of where a stylus is pressed (I'm assuming that this means it is resistive rather than capacitive) and might have some space where you can print out your own button decals to place underneath it.

More info over at botbench - http://botbench.com/blog/2011/10/05/coming-soon-mindsensors-touch-panel-sensor/

According to the Mindsensors 'Coming Soon' page it will be shipping by the end of the month. (Although they don't state which month :D )

Building Instructions Page update

2011-10-08T17:43:00.000-05:00

Our first update of the Building Instructions page is now up. Thanks to everyone who submitted designs and their instructions.

Click on the 'Building Instructions' tab at the top of the page.

We're always on the lookout for more, so if you have (or know of) a great set of instructions, please submit them. A few guidelines

Don't submit a whole site, instead, pick out one or two great examples to feature and we'll make sure it's known there are other builds on the site
We prefer instructions that can be made with the NXT kits and perhaps a few extra common pieces. There is nothing more frustrating than getting halfway through a build only to find you need <insert speciality/obscure piece here>
Make sure they are clear instructions. It doesn't matter if it was done in LEGO Digital Designer, LDRAW, MLCAD or even photos, as long as it's clear

NXTlog Spooktacular Building Challenge

2011-10-08T13:19:00.006-05:00

It has been a while since the last one, but there is finally another building challenge at NXTlog! This one sounds fun, dig up you NXT and get building!

"t’s been four years since NXTLOG has hosted a spooky Halloween challenge, and it’s time to get boo-ilding! Will you design a robot to dispense candy in a helpful way, or one that “tricks” you when you go to grab a “treat?” How about a robot that shows what your costume would be, or one that can carve a jack-o-lantern, or even a fright bot representing a classic Halloween icon, character, monster, or beast! There's no limit on amount of Spooktacular ideas there are or the amount of LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT sensors, motors, NXT programmable bricks, HiTechnic sensors, or Bluetooth communication you can use on your NXT Halloween Bot. All entries must be tagged "spooktacular." Entries must be submitted by Halloween! October 31, 2011. What will boo, um we mean "you" make?"

JUDGING CRITERIA
"Awards will be given in 3 areas. Award winners will be featured on LEGO MINDSTORMS News. 1) SPOOKTACULAR AWARD: This will be the Halloween robot that is so spectacular, so creative, and innovative that it spooks the judges silly! 2) THE TRICKSTER: This award will go to the trickiest robot on Halloween night. 3) THE TREAT: This award will go to the most iconic Halloween robot. How much does your robot really say, “Halloween?”"
Read more here

Segway balancing with Dexter Industries IMU Sensor

2011-10-07T17:04:00.002-05:00

Recently I have been reprogramming my NXT Segway. The code is now much cleaner, and it also made it easier to implement Dexter Industries' latest sensor, the 6DOF IMU. The Segway runs around the room while avoiding objects with its ultrasonic sensor. This isn't new, but it's a nice demonstration of Dexter's new sensor.

In this robot I'm just using one "Degree of Freedom", namely one gyro axis. Other axes could be used for elementary navigation like making a 90-degree turn. The acceleration sensor could help determining whether the robot has run into an obstacle. Much interesting work left to do here!

Ada Lovelace Day

2011-10-07T09:35:00.003-05:00

Today's Ada Lovelace Day, so also me as an contributor to THE NXT STEP takes the liberty to post about "a woman in science, technology, engineering and mathematics who has influenced us over the years".

For me, it's fellow contributor Fay Rhodes who constantly reminds me (who tends to approach MINDSTORMS from a rather technical perspective) of keeping in touch with the main target audience for LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT, that is, the kids.

Also, here in the blog as well as in other forums and groups related to LEGO that I share with her, she always has a particular focus on a part of human mankind that still deserves more consideration than it gets in male-dominated sciences: girls.

Both of which also reflects in her wonderful books on robot animals, like The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Zoo, Robots Alive! Endangered Species or NXT One-Kit Creatures (the German edition of which I am the proud translator of).

Who is your robotic Ada Lovelace Day woman?
Tell us!

LEGO® CUUSOO

2011-10-04T02:36:00.001-05:00

In case you do not know it yet (admittedly, I didn't until recently): some time ago, LEGO® has set up an exciting web project, called LEGO® CUUSOO.

If you got an idea for a new model, share it there. In case it gets at least 10.000 supporters, LEGO® will review it and maybe produce it as an official product (with you receiving royalties).

LEGO® CUUSOO is still in beta state, but check it out!

The mozo mozo machine

2011-10-03T01:57:00.002-05:00

Isogawa Yoshihito, sparkling source of ingenious LEGO® ideas, has published* a device with another way to move a mobile robot, the mozo mozo machine:

In the video it is not propelled by a NXT, but there's no reason why one shouldn't us one here ...

Besides: "mozo mozo" is Japanese and may roughly be translated as "to move in order to snuggle up to someone".

* actually some months ago, but I detected it just right now

New Java book for the NXT

2011-10-02T12:28:00.001-05:00

One month ago, a new book has been published by Brian Bagnall, one of the main contributors to leJOS NXJ, the Open Source Java platform for the NXT: Intelligence Unleashed: Creating LEGO NXT Robots with Java.
Brian has already written NXT books with a focus on Java in the past, and this new one

"helps engineers and amateurs alike design and build their own customized robots, programmed however they desire. A diverse set of projects is accompanied by building tips, programming code, complete 3D-rendered building instructions, and hundreds of illustrations. The NXT intelligent brick’s Bluetooth capabilities are introduced, as are the newest available parts, from GPS to the RFID sensor, in this useful handbook that serves as the perfect compliment to the LEGO NXT kit."

as the description on Amazon says.
I have not laid my hands on it so far; in case one of our readers has already tried it or knows about videos or images on the robots of the book, please provide feedback here.

NXT High bay warehouse

2011-09-29T23:09:00.000-05:00

TheNiels17 has made a fantastic automated warehouse system.

There are 9 bays, each identified by a 3x3 matrix. Each is identified by a 2 colour combination, so Blue:Green is row 1:column 2, Yellow:Green is row 3, column 2 etc

By assembling a little 'swipe' card with the various colours,you can tell the robot what space you are referring to. You can also tell the robot if it needs to place the 'palette' (white code) or pick the palette (black) code.

So a Green:White:Yellow swipe means - Place the palette at location 2:3
and a Yellow:Black:Blue swipe means - Pick the palette from location 3:1

Of course he's implemented error checking so you can place a palette in an occupied space and you pick a palette if there is nothing there in the first place. Just totop it all off, there is a random function to place a palette in a random, unoccupied spot.

If this didn't make sense, watch the video, it does a far better job of demonstrating it than my description :)

Sumo rings... how to build

2011-09-28T10:11:00.003-05:00

I've helped out occasionally at a school with LEGO robotics, and the teacher asked me today for instructions on how to make her own Sumo ring. After typing them up... I realized I don't think I'd ever put them out there "in the wild" so to speak, for others to use. So, here's a copy of the instructions for those who would like to make a reasonably cheap but professional-looking LEGO sumo ring... and if you make it out of melamine, maybe even a more interesting "test environment" as well. Share and enjoy.

=====

> Do you happen to have a list of supplies needed?

Nope... so let's make up a recipe and parts list on the spot :)

A lot of people make a sumo ring out of plywood (often 1/4" or more) supported off the floor with 2x4's or something similar. That's really heavy, and really needs sanding to produce a smooth surface, and can warp when wet, needs a lot of paint, etc. So here's my version.

Materials:

• A 1/4" thick, 4x4 sheet of MDF board (also called "Hardboard"). This is inexpensive, and already has smooth, finished surfaces. It's also not terribly strong and would not support itself well (a good thing). See possible alternative at the end.

• A square of 4x4, 4" thick styrofoam insulation sheeting. Very light, fairly cheap, and can be cut with a hot-wire cutter (can be picked up at a craft store for a few bucks) nice & smooth.

• Flat white & flat black spray-paint.

Tools:

• Saw to cut MDF board (jigsaw works well, but you have to keep the board supported when cutting it)

• Hot-wire cutter (to cut foam board)

• Painter's masking tape (wide, 2" wide if possible)

• String.

Procedure:

1) Stretch string from corner to corner on 4x4 MDF board, marking where it falls across the middle of the board (do that twice, once from top-left to bottom-right, once from top-right to bottom-left). Where the two diagonal lines cross is the middle of the 4x4 sheet.

2) Pin or hold one end of the string to this center point, and tightly hold or wrap a pencil in the strong 2' away. You now have a great big compass to draw a 4' diameter circle. Note: the lower stretch the string is, the better. Upholstery thread is actually really good for this if you have some (stuff is strong and nearly zero stretch). A survey tape works too (eh, I'm a caver, I actually have this stuff lying around).

3) Use the makeshift compass to mark out a really big circle, and cut it out. You might want to sand the cut edges of the board to round them just a bit and take off and rough edges.

4) Lay the 4' diameter circle in the middle of the 4x4 foam board, and trace the edges. You now have a marked circle of foam board you can cut out (using the hot-wire cutter for the final shaping) that can be slid under the ring to raise it a uniform 4", but is really really light so it's easy to transport. Also, since it is rigid and supports the entire surface of the ring, the somewhat floppy MDF board isn't a problem... in fact if it warps a little, just laying it flat usually solves the problem (the ring I have is about 6 years old, and has been sitting on edge in my basement most of that time... but is nice and flat when I lay it down).

5) Spray-paint the outer 3" or so of one side of the MDF ring flat white. Don't worry about the inner edge being irregular, just make sure the outer 2" at least is a nice uniform flat white. MDF board takes paint well, and probably a couple of coats is all you need.

6) Once the white outer edge is completely dry, mask off the outer 2" completely with painter's tape. If the tape is 2" wide, this is really easy to do with overlapping pieces. Make sure the tape seals down to the white along the inner edge.

7) With the outer 2" of already white ring completely protected, spray-paint the entire inside of the ring flat black (again, it might take a couple of coats, but MDF takes paint well). Let this dry completely.

8) Remove the masking tape. You should have a 2" white boarder around an otherwise black circle.

Notes:

• For reasons I've never ever understood, most on-line version of these instructions I've encountered suggests you paint the black first, then mask off and try to paint the edge. I've no idea why, since that means a heck of a lot more white paint to try to completely cover the black paint at the edge you are overspraying, or a rather non-uniform surface. The method above works, and takes a minimum of paint and effort... and it's a lot easier to make a uniform painters tape edge when masking the outside of a curve.

• Since both MDF/Hardboard and the foam insulation usually come in 4x8 sheets, it's actually normally better to make two of these rings at the same time - you're likely to end up with the materials for it anyway. And storing two rings really doesn't take up much more space than one (both rings together are just under 9" thick... you can tuck them behind a file cabinet or along a wall).

• I originally used spray glue to glue the MDF ring to the foam. Don't. The glue eventually fails, and if it's not glued then if & when the foam gets too abused, replacing it is just cutting another piece. The glue takes away flexibility (see below for an idea perfect for teaching settings, that requires "flipping the board"), fails eventually, and really doesn't make it any easier to set up. This also means that if you don't like your robots falling the catastrophic 4" to the floor when they are pushed off the ring... you just slide the foam out. Or, if you are a glutton for punishment, slide a couple of more pieces in there so that the loosing robot takes a 1' fall :)

• Instead of MDF, a possible alternative I've thought of but not tried is white melamine board. It's the same stuff, with a plastic coating on one side for dry erase markers, and not much different in price. If you paint the "back" side into a sumo ring, you still have the big round "front" melamine side that you can draw on with dry-erase markers. It would be good for simple line following courses, or making robots that can draw with dry-erase markers (a lot of fun, actually... one robot can draw a line, while another tries to follow it at the same time for example. The accumulation of trails starts working like an ant colony, and has some interesting "emergent" behavior aspects). My original thought was to just use the white side to start the sumo ring, in place of a painted white edge, but I would not recommend that. The black paint is unlikely to stick well to the melamine, and the friction between the smooth untreated melamine surface and the black spray-painted surface would be significantly different, which isn't something you want either... not to mention what you'd save on not using white paint you'd probably more than outspend on the multiple layers of black painted needed to "black out" all that white melamine.

Brian Davis

RoboCup Junior Australian Championships

2011-09-27T07:21:00.000-05:00

I've just returned home from Hobart, Tasmania where we held the National Championships for RoboCup Junior. Whilst not strictly a LEGO competition, we see a very large proportion of NXT robots, as it is one of the easiest ways for a school to get started.

As usual I got too involved with everything that was happening and didn't get any good pics, but Rob Torok did and posted them in a Picasweb Album.

photos by Rob Torok

I've put together a longer post over at www.damienkee.com as well as a couple of short videos of the weekend.

Danny's & Xander's OMNIBOT

2011-09-27T05:42:00.004-05:00

Time ago, starting from the omnidirectional robots design by Xander Soldaat, I built Omnibot, yet another Killough platform. This can be built with just one NXT 2.0 set (you will have just one sonar). Check out the short demo video below.

Instructions and details available on Danny's MINDSTORMS page.
The software is released as part of the OPEN SOURCE LejOS project.

Ultrasonic Sensor Exposed

2011-09-26T22:53:00.000-05:00

Xander over at Bot Bench has decided to take to another sensor with his sharp knife, in this case the Ultrasonic Sensor.

Some great photos and a nice writeup but alas no hidden twist like the Colour Sensor

See all the gory details here: http://botbench.com/blog/2011/09/21/exposed-lego-ultrasonic-sensor/

RobotC 3.03 update

2011-09-26T20:52:00.000-05:00

Carnegie Mellon's Robotics Academy group have just release an update to the latest version on RobotC.

Nothing major it seems, mainly bug fixes etc but if you're running it, it doesn't hurt to have the latest version.
Click here for the latest download.

via: http://botbench.com/blog/2011/09/26/robotc-3-03-available-for-download-now/