Impressions from Fana'Briques 2008

As posted last week, the annual Fana'Briques 2008 took place in Rosheim (Alsace, France) on the weekend gone-by.

It was a great success, with an European record for the number of modules in a GBC (63 in a line) and a LEGO® TGV speed world record (more than 900 km/h equivalent speed).

Here's a little movie that I made up from some impressions from the setup phase on Saturday morning:


Some more images can be found in the web here and here.

This weekend: Fana'Briques 2008

All of you who are near to the Alsace in France: do not forget to attend the Fana'Briques 2008 event that will take place in Rosheim tomorrow and on Sunday (28th and 29th of June).

Also the third run of Fana'Briques will be focused on the topic LEGO® in Locomotion: there will be an attempt for a speed world record with a LEGO® bullet train (TGV/ICE), a large DCC controlled roadway system, Mini- and Maxifigs at the Olympic Games and a building challenge for children as well as a particularly large Great Ball Contraption (targeting the size of 100 modules).

Fana'Briques 2008

A Date to prebook: also this year the Fana' Briques will take place in Rosheim (Alsace, France) , this time on the 28^th and 29^th of June.
To satisfy the increased crowd of visitors, this year the new location has changed to a place that offers an exhibition space of 1400 m² (double the size of last year's event).
Again, also the third run of Fana'Briques Veranstaltung will be focused on the topic LEGO® in Locomotion: there will be an attempt for a speed world record with a LEGO® bullet train (TGV/ICE), a large DCC controlled roadway system, Mini- and Maxifigs at the Olympic Games and a building challenge for children as well as a particularly large Great Ball Contraption (targetting the size of 100 modules).

Rosheim in the Alsace is always worth a sojourn - have a look at the Fana'Briques page and make a note for the weekend mentioned in your calendar.

Atlanta World Festival

3 Days to go.









LEGO posted a small agenda, with nice Actions:
- Quizzes - where you can win prizes!
- Cool MINDSTORMS models to play with, made by the expert users!
Presentations:
- 'Using 3-D programs to build LEGO MINDSTORMS models' - by Fay Rhodes and Jim Kelly.
- 'Open Source and alternative programming for LEGO MINDSTORMS' - by Ralph Hempel, creator of pbLua.
- 'Taking LEGO MINDSTORMS to the Sky - The LEGO Autopilot' - by Chris Anderson.
Celebrating 10 years of LEGO MINDSTORMS:
- Kick-off for the LEGO MINDSTORMS Global Roadtrip. With sending off two robots across the planet! Come and sign up, so one of them might visit your FLL team!

So make a note in your agenda too, and visit 17, 18 or 19 April the MINDSTORMS booth in Atlanta.


Martyn

HRI2008 show, Amsterdam

At the International Conference about Human-Robot interaction, National Instruments and LEGO teamed up to show their products.

Together with Daniel Wittenaar, I attended to help out Steven Canvin (LEGO) and Andy Bell (NI). We had some real great new models on display (picture 2 and 3).




There was a Competition for university students to build a model demonstrating the Human-Robot interaction. They were given just one retail box and a RFID sensor with tags (picture 4, is the complete group and their robots).
Look forward for highlights on this event the next weeks.



Martyn

FLL Power Puzzle BeNeLux Final

The Benelux final of the First LEGO League will be held at the University Twente on Saturday 26 January.
You can follow this live online, (just during the games) but you are also welcome to visit us, the 32 best teams of Netherland, Belgium and Luxembourg will show their robots and fight for a place in Atlanta.
There are also several Workshops MINDSTORMS and science demonstrations, I will show several demonstration models and some models from the IDEA book.
See this page for the location.

Martyn

Frechen 2008 NXT class

Frechen, Germany, 2008 the first club event in the new year. Frechen is known for its impressive MOC displays. This time they also had two workshops; LCAD and MINDSTORMS NXT.
The class was lead by Stefan, who did a wonderful job. There were 6 teams of 2 kids each -- though we could have trained over 20 adults (if they had only been allowed in the class :). The kids had to program an Education robot to drive a pattern on a little riddle; “Das Haus des Nikolaus “ (the home of Santa Claus).

It is a house that you can draw in one single line, without lifting the pen from the paper, or doubling-back any line. (see image).
The kids learned how to code, and debug their own program. Even different languages are no barrier for these kids, there was a Dutch-German team that worked 2.5 hours, great team work! At the end of class each team demonstrated their robot, then I showed a few models from our Idea book. It was a great day.
more images are in this brickshelf folder

Martyn

Spike attacks NXT-T

At the Club day in Harderberg, Eric brought several nice NXT models, and an impressive fully remote tank (it even fires and auto load the soccer balls).

We had great fun when Spike attacked NXT-T, a Dino like in the new IR remote Creator set but now build form NXT parts.

More photos will follow.

martyn

LEGO(R) Club day "de Bouwsteen"

For those of you who can’t wait until Bricking Bavaria or LEGOWORLD.
Please join me in visiting the Dutch LEGO club day organized by the Bouwsteen.
It's on 25th and 26th of August (this weekend). This time the club day will be held in Harderberg (close to the German border).


There will be a large train layout and lots of other nice models on display. You can buy old and new LEGO. I will show various NXT models, even some form our upcoming book.
You are welcome and the entrance is free.

Martyn

RoboGames - San Francisco June 15-17, 2007

If you live near San Francisco and may be looking for something robotic to do that weekend...head on over and take a look at the world's largest open robot competition. The 4th annual RoboGames is sure to "spark" some interest for builders and spectators alike. There will be many different classes of robots from LEGO MindStorms to fire-spitting behemoths...and featuring competitions in over 70 different events: combat robots, walking humanoids, soccer bots (Robot World Cup), sumo bots, and even androids that do kung-fu. Some robots are autonomous and some are remote controlled.

LEGO Challenge (Line Running Challenge)
LEGO Open (Robot Design Contest)

If you go send me some pictures! I'll post them here.

Chris