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 !!

Google Zeitgeist, London

Tuesday 16 May, Jorgen Vig Knudstrop (CEO and President, LEGO) talked about Game-Changing entertainment at the Google Zeitgeist 2011 event.
Jorgen refers to us the fans that make the brand.



full movie (as shown on Jorgen's phone).



We helped LEGO to show several interesting LEGO MINDSTORMS models, sumobot (by LEGO)

Soccerbots with helmets (by NeXTStorms)


Streetview car (by Mark)


C5 (by university students Kenneth Madsen and Lasse Lauesen).


It was nice to see that many CEO's loved to play with the soccerbots.

The Android powered Megaminx "cube" solver

Right You've seen them all, those Rubik's Cube solvers, now this is is different.

The Megaminx is a dodecahedron with 12 faces, each with 5 edges. Each face can be rotated in a similar way to the well-known Rubik's Cube puzzle.
The robot itself is built out of LEGO using a Mindstorms NXT kit for driving the mechanics. An HTC Desire smartphone running a custom Android app is the brain of the solver. The app uses the phone's camera to capture images of each face of the Megaminx which it then processes to determine the colors of the scrambled puzzle. After working out the solution, the app transmits the moves to the NXT controller via bluetooth to instruct it to solve the Magaminx.

Check this blog for more information, and enjoy the nice movie



update, second full movie


I say that is a job well done, David Gilday!

Control your NXT by voice

The people of Roberta, the German project aiming to interest girls for sciences by using robotics, have created a cool new mobile app for Android, called "NXT speech control":

"With 'NXT Speech Control' you are able to control your NXT robot over voice commands. With this app you just have to fill in your commands e.g. 'hurry up', 'go away', 'hide' to the prepared nxt-commands (forward, backward, left, right) and then choose the speed and distance."

Great stuff! Check it out and tell us about your experiences.

Google's AppInventor for Android supports LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT now

On Friday, Google announced on the Google Code Blog that AppInventor, its Cloud-based programming platform for Android, supports LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT now:


"[...] a fun 20% robotics project that resulted in three ways you can play with your iRobot Create®, LEGO® MINDSTORMS®, or VEX Pro® through the cloud. We did this by enhancing App Inventor for Android, contributing to the open source Cellbots Java app, and beefing up the Cellbots Python libraries. Together these apps provide new connectivity between robots, Android, the cloud, and your browser."

Seems the whole mobile-NXT thing is gaining momentum. :)

Try it out and tell us about your experiences.

MINDdroid: Official Android application for LEGO® MINDSTORMS

Image courtesy of TLG

The LEGO Group™ has just announced the first official Android cell phone application for LEGO® MINDSTORMS:

"We are happy to announce the launch of the MINDdroid application for Android (2.1 or higher) phones, that will allow you to get instant access and control to your NXT robot, and give the ability to control by the flick of a wrist!


The MINDdroid app is a remote-control application that allows you to create a wireless connection directly with your NXT, and once a connection is established, you can tilt and turn your phone to make the robot move forward, turn to the sides, and by pressing an action button on the phone's screen, activate the Action motor. If you have a Shooterbot or other robot using two motors for motion and have a spare motor for actions, you are in for a lot of fun!"

Cool stuff!
To read more, go to the MINDSTORMS News page.