NXTified Gingerbread

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

Big thanks to Fredrik for sending us this!

Flying robot bird

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?

Nazgul NXT robot, anyone?

CATROID : Scratch for Android

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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


:)

"Roboterwesen": new NXT book in German available now

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

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!

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

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

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

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

(C) World Robot Olympiad (official)

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

NXT Segway follows a line

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

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

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

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

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

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

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?

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

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

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

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

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

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!