Multiple Motor Control - Guest Blogger

Mark_R80 shares the following:

I have created a card that plugs into the input port of a NXT brick and can control 2 NXT motors. By using several card (on different address) one could have a lot more motors then the multiplexer method being developed by MindSensors and HiTechnics.

Guitar-Playing NXT

Here's the description from the creator:

"This robot can play five chords using three NXT motors. The guitar is an ordinary acoustic guitar tuned in "open C" - it plays a C chord when the strings are strummed without the other hand touching the fret board.

And I can say that the robot plays the guitar better than I do!"

Bot'oberfest 2008 Summary

Yesterday, over 400 participants gathered at the Atlanta Girls' School for Bot'oberfest 2008 (up from almost 300 in 2007).

Classes this year included:

Intro to NXT-G Programming
Intermediate NXT-G
Advanced NXT-G

Basic Robot Design
Reliable Robot Design
Chassis Design

FLL Project & Judging Overview
FLL Missions Overview (and Discussion of Rules)

Open Meet & Discuss

I'll post a link shortly where you can view slideshows for the various classes. The event was a huge success, and we're already hearing back from attendees on what they liked and what they'd like to see next year. We broke the event up into a morning and afternoon session and allowed participants to sign up for one or the other (the schedule was repeated and the spreadsheet can be downloaded here).

RHex, the Rugged Robot

Today, I ran over the web site of Boston Dynamics that features a video with a fascinating robot of theirs, the RHex ("The Rugged Robot that Devours Rough Terrain").
It's a six-legged machine that is able to walk over almost any terrain found out there, to climb stairways, steep slopes and railroad tracks and even to swim!

Though it's not a NXT robot, the video decidedly is some kind of inspiration in that regard (however, don't try to throw your brick into a pool of mud, don't you! Mind, it's not as sealed as RHEx...).

Watch the video - it's intriguing!

One-Kit Wonders, an outline

LEGO MINSTORMS NXT One-Kit Wonders, the new book by the blog contributors is scheduled to be printed around the fourth of November this year. This post gives you an outline of the ten chapters and their robots.

Chapter one:
CandyPicker: A candy-picking robot with built-in generator and remote control

Chapter two:
PunchBot: Old-school programming using your NXT

Chapter three:
M: the m&m sorter

Chapter four:
NXT Dragster: The NXT STEP Dragster Challenge

Chapter five:
BobBot: An NXT version of the Bobcat

Chapter six:
RoboLock: A security system for your robots

Chapter seven:
The hand: A robot for those dirty jobs

Chapter eight:
SPC: Self-parking car

Chapter nine:
GrabBot: A robot that finds, grabs, lifts, and moves

Chapter ten:
Bike: A two wheeled, obstacle avoiding vehicle

Read more about the book in previous posts here.

FLL Anime Overview Video

While exploring the depths of Youtube, I came across this nicely done Anime video discussing the concepts of the FLL competition by a Saudian FLL team.



I think it gets the Gracious Proffesionalism theme across particularly well, and how winning is not everything... just enjoy!

Good luck to all,

Richard

Robot Inspiration Series #9: Construction Bots

EDIT : You can see a robot that does this sort of thing here.

This week's inspiration is somewhat advanced: construction robots. Can you make a robot that builds something, on its own, out of LEGOs? It doesn't have to be another robot, or even something very complicated. You could have a robot build a wall, for example. Or you could have a pallet of pieces, arranged in the right order, that a robot selects and puts together on a workspace.

You can see some (very) elaborate examples of construction robots in the Aircraft Factory and Car Factory. Obviously, you probably wouldn't make something like this, but maybe a small, simpler, version would be possible.

Let us know if you make one!

-Jonathan

P.S. See other posts in this blog series here.

NXT Birthday Cake

Shortly after reaching the 50 project milestone, today the nxtprograms.com web site reached another milestone by turning one year old! So here is a one-candle birthday cake project to celebrate.

The flame on the candle of the cake will "flicker" while the NXT plays the "Happy Birthday" song ,and when the song finishes, you can make a wish and blow out the candle. The sound sensor will detect the blowing, and then the flame will disappear!

Here is a video of the cake in action:

Building Instructions for Axle/Pin Puller

The rubber axle joiners at the center of the grip are to prevent damage when gripping or pulling parts. Building instructions are here.

Technic Triangles

Kevin Knuth has posted some nice, TECHNIC equilateral triangles of various sizes. His triangles are for a drive system; however, clever folks can find other uses for them as well.

Several of the triangles shown have lists of parts and building instructions here.

FLL Resources

We enjoy covering FLL and will continue to bring you news related to it, but just in case you're unfamiliar with the site, please check out www.techbrick.com if you've never paid a visit. Marco Ciavolino's coverage of all things FLL is outstanding - he even provides an email newsletter that always keeps you up-to-date on rule changes, new resources, and anything else he can fit in there... many of the notices you see on our blog related to FLL come directly from Marco. He's recently added some new resources that teams will find incredibly useful... here's a sample of his most recent newsletter:

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1. Anne and Dave, our new mentors for FLL, have come up with the most amazing, simple, and effective method for helping a team work through the missions, especially for rookie teams.

Read about it here:
http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/LEGO2008/Resources/fllmissioncards.html

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2. New Resource: Three Climate Maps

We found a range of global climate maps. Here's the worksheets we used to generate a huge amount of discussion.

See it here (scroll down to first new item)
http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/LEGO2008/Resources

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3. Two new group communications games.

Check out plural weather terms and marker mystery.

Download them here. Scroll down and look for the two new items.

http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/LEGO2008/Resources/resourcesGroups.html

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4. Get personalized versions of the Climate Connections Poster

http://www.techbrick.com/Lego/LEGO2008/Resources/poster.html

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50 Fun Projects for your NXT

The nxtprograms.com website reached a milestone recently, with 50 projects posted, all with full building instructions and downloadable programs. To celebrate this milestone, I have published a new version of the CD titled "50 Fun Projects for your LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT", now in a full color jewel case. The CD is useful for anyone who wants to access the projects without a fast internet connection in their LEGO room, as a backup against network flakiness, or just as a nice addition to their collection of books and other NXT resources. A significant bulk discount is also available for teachers and coaches to order multiple copies to use in their classrooms and/or distribute to their students.

Also, by popular demand, I have started to try to enter the video age by posting videos of the projects on YouTube. There are some there now from the most recent projects, and as I have time, I will be rebuilding and videoing the past projects to get more up there.

NXTLog Challenge - Cool Creature Building Challenge

What can be more fun than a barrel full of monkeys? A barrel full of NXT monkeys! We've had Biped, Quadruped, and even Bug Bot challenges on NXTLOG, but now we want you to have lots of fun and build the coolest creature on the planet.

Read on here at NXTLog.
Have fun!

Richard

EDIT: Due to a request from a reader, I've changed the link above to a hyperlink.