Now, this version 5 transforms from a cube shape to a fully articulated well proportioned look alike of the famous Disney/Pixar WALL-E®. The first public appearance of this robot was at BrickWORLD Chicago, 2011.
read the full story here [Link]
Showing posts with label Brickworld. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brickworld. Show all posts
Thursday, July 14, 2011
WALL-E 5
On the MINDSTORMS website under "news" a new robot story is posted as it is told by Marc-André Bazergui & team about "Making a Robotic Model of a Robot".
read the full story here [Link]
read the full story here [Link]
Monday, July 19, 2010
Monster Chess Redux
What do you get when you make a room-sized robotic chess set based entirely on LEGO and unveil it at a major LEGO convention?
A scheduling problem.
Monster Chess went over wonderfully at Brickworld, drawing large crowds, playing multiple games, and winning acclamation & awards. It was so well-liked that LEGO requested it almost immediately... but other venues (such as Makerfaire in Detroit on 31 Jul & 1 Aug, 2010) had also already booked it. With a double-booked tour schedule, what's a Monster Chess set to do?
Clone itself.
LEGO was interested enough in having it at some events that they were able to dig up parts to make a copy of this huge creation. But with less than a week, the challenge was to assemble more than 73,000 individual pieces into a single master creation: no easy feat. So when a shipping pallet with 412 pounds of LEGO arrived at Steve Hassenplug's door, he did what came naturally to him: called on his friends. Over the course of the 17 Jul weekend, more than two dozen people* participated in a mass build to restructure the random pieces into another full functional chess set. Slightly under 48 hours later, it build was done. Steve estimates it took roughly 300+ person-hours (we could have done it a little faster, but we did sleep some, and play a game of RoboRally).
The reason I wanted to blog about this wasn't becasue of Monster Chess itself actually (it's fantastic, but Steve's Monster Chess pages cov
er that much better than I can here, and they will be expanding). It's about two other aspects in the LEGO and NXT world: community, and really massive builds. Monster Chess looks impressive as all get out, but for the folks that actually produce things like this, a good bit of the "fun" is in the doing, not the finished product. Getting a bunch of people together to build a copy was an amazing amount of fun. In our case, my son Ben & I walked in about halfway through at 5 PM on Saturday, and asked what we could do - we were handed two large boxes of parts, and one of the original knight pieces, and asked to make four copies (2 white, 2 black). It was a wonderful treat, turning roughly 1300 parts (420 of them pins) into four elegant sculptures while chatting with friends... not to mention the fact that I got to race a 12-year-old
in a speed build of a model that we certainly never had a chance to build before (I won on the knights, but lost on the rooks later that weekend, so we called it a tie). About five hours later, we switched to building four copies of the rooks, which are completely different in structure and design philosophy. Where the knights are graceful, curved, complexly angled constructions, and very organic, the rooks are a sharp contrast: solid & angular, with some parts so amazingly strong and reinforced that Ben had to ask my help to drive the axles into their places, and using reinforced gearing systems to transfer the large torques needed to fire the Zamor sphere launchers built into them. For stress-relieving breaks, we would take "time out" to cover 48x48 baseplates with 2x2 tiles to make the board (with more than 570 tiles on each baseplate and an 8 by 8 board, close to 37,000 tiles had to be applied during this "speed build"). Another group of people formed an assembly line to produce the 32 
identical robot bases that the "shells" sit on to make the completed pieces. 32 NXTs. Almost 100 NXT motors. More than 120 color sensors (and of course the more than 220 wires that were needed to hook all this together, and we've not even begun to talk about the actual LEGO pieces). And through this all, we had fun - talked to new people, reunited with old friends, and learned about others building styles and techniques, as well as just talking with a bunch of people that share a common passion (or obsession).
Huge multi-hundred-pound build opportunities are rare. They've got to be; most of us can't afford anything like enough LEGO to do this sort of thing. But the community aspect... that can be shared by anybody. From 7 to 70, anywhere in the world, you can usually find someone to interact with in the LEGO universe... hopefully in person, but if not, on-line. For some of us, we had to drive a significant distance to participate in this... but it was worth every last minute. If you ever get the chance to do a large build, do it... and even if you don't, find other people to form a community with out there. You won't be sorry, and will learn much more, much faster, than you may have ever dreamed of.
When I have a better schedule for where Monster Chess will appear, I'll put it in the blog, but until then I'd recommend watching Steve's site for updates. Maybe Monster Chess will appear in your neck of the woods.
For more pictures of the build party, you can take a look at my Flickr page, or Brickshelf.
*To those two-dozen-plus folks: a really huge thank you, as this wouldn't have happened without all of your contributions. So let me quickly thank, in no particular order, John, Steve, Heather, Matt, Kurt, Ron, Zoe, Bryan, Kathie, Brian, Ben, Tom P., Chad, Brenda, Steven, Kate, Bunnie, Barbara, Aaron, Stacy, Tom B., Linda, Tom T., Jennifer, James, & David, and a huge thank you to LEGO for providing the parts, & shiping massive amounts of LEGO in a rapid fashion.
--
Brian Davis
A scheduling problem.
Monster Chess went over wonderfully at Brickworld, drawing large crowds, playing multiple games, and winning acclamation & awards. It was so well-liked that LEGO requested it almost immediately... but other venues (such as Makerfaire in Detroit on 31 Jul & 1 Aug, 2010) had also already booked it. With a double-booked tour schedule, what's a Monster Chess set to do?Clone itself.
LEGO was interested enough in having it at some events that they were able to dig up parts to make a copy of this huge creation. But with less than a week, the challenge was to assemble more than 73,000 individual pieces into a single master creation: no easy feat. So when a shipping pallet with 412 pounds of LEGO arrived at Steve Hassenplug's door, he did what came naturally to him: called on his friends. Over the course of the 17 Jul weekend, more than two dozen people* participated in a mass build to restructure the random pieces into another full functional chess set. Slightly under 48 hours later, it build was done. Steve estimates it took roughly 300+ person-hours (we could have done it a little faster, but we did sleep some, and play a game of RoboRally).The reason I wanted to blog about this wasn't becasue of Monster Chess itself actually (it's fantastic, but Steve's Monster Chess pages cov
er that much better than I can here, and they will be expanding). It's about two other aspects in the LEGO and NXT world: community, and really massive builds. Monster Chess looks impressive as all get out, but for the folks that actually produce things like this, a good bit of the "fun" is in the doing, not the finished product. Getting a bunch of people together to build a copy was an amazing amount of fun. In our case, my son Ben & I walked in about halfway through at 5 PM on Saturday, and asked what we could do - we were handed two large boxes of parts, and one of the original knight pieces, and asked to make four copies (2 white, 2 black). It was a wonderful treat, turning roughly 1300 parts (420 of them pins) into four elegant sculptures while chatting with friends... not to mention the fact that I got to race a 12-year-old
in a speed build of a model that we certainly never had a chance to build before (I won on the knights, but lost on the rooks later that weekend, so we called it a tie). About five hours later, we switched to building four copies of the rooks, which are completely different in structure and design philosophy. Where the knights are graceful, curved, complexly angled constructions, and very organic, the rooks are a sharp contrast: solid & angular, with some parts so amazingly strong and reinforced that Ben had to ask my help to drive the axles into their places, and using reinforced gearing systems to transfer the large torques needed to fire the Zamor sphere launchers built into them. For stress-relieving breaks, we would take "time out" to cover 48x48 baseplates with 2x2 tiles to make the board (with more than 570 tiles on each baseplate and an 8 by 8 board, close to 37,000 tiles had to be applied during this "speed build"). Another group of people formed an assembly line to produce the 32 
identical robot bases that the "shells" sit on to make the completed pieces. 32 NXTs. Almost 100 NXT motors. More than 120 color sensors (and of course the more than 220 wires that were needed to hook all this together, and we've not even begun to talk about the actual LEGO pieces). And through this all, we had fun - talked to new people, reunited with old friends, and learned about others building styles and techniques, as well as just talking with a bunch of people that share a common passion (or obsession).
Huge multi-hundred-pound build opportunities are rare. They've got to be; most of us can't afford anything like enough LEGO to do this sort of thing. But the community aspect... that can be shared by anybody. From 7 to 70, anywhere in the world, you can usually find someone to interact with in the LEGO universe... hopefully in person, but if not, on-line. For some of us, we had to drive a significant distance to participate in this... but it was worth every last minute. If you ever get the chance to do a large build, do it... and even if you don't, find other people to form a community with out there. You won't be sorry, and will learn much more, much faster, than you may have ever dreamed of.When I have a better schedule for where Monster Chess will appear, I'll put it in the blog, but until then I'd recommend watching Steve's site for updates. Maybe Monster Chess will appear in your neck of the woods.
For more pictures of the build party, you can take a look at my Flickr page, or Brickshelf.
*To those two-dozen-plus folks: a really huge thank you, as this wouldn't have happened without all of your contributions. So let me quickly thank, in no particular order, John, Steve, Heather, Matt, Kurt, Ron, Zoe, Bryan, Kathie, Brian, Ben, Tom P., Chad, Brenda, Steven, Kate, Bunnie, Barbara, Aaron, Stacy, Tom B., Linda, Tom T., Jennifer, James, & David, and a huge thank you to LEGO for providing the parts, & shiping massive amounts of LEGO in a rapid fashion.--
Brian Davis
Friday, June 11, 2010
Monster Chess
So there's been something in the works for Brickworld for some time now, and I thought I'd share it here (because, (a) I really want to, and (b) not everybody can make it to Brickworld, where it will be displayed). Steve Hassenplug has been working with a large group of folks to make a rather... big... robotic game. Tic-Tac-Toe & Connect-Four were impressive, but in the interest of something off the supersize menu, I give you...
Monster Chess
The idea is sim
ple - a chess game where you can play against the computer. But the implementation here is what's truely monster about it. Each piece is its own autonomous robot, and there are actually a couple of 'spares' (as well as NXTs built into the King & Queen), so that ends up with 38 separate NXTs that must be controlled, commanded, and communicated with. Ron McRae did the bulk of the software work on the PC end for this, and it realy works well. The board has squares based on the large LEGO baseplates, making the entire assembly roughly 12' on a side. On top of that is a way to input the humans moves, and a laptop running chess software and helping make everything move smoothly. Even the pieces can be changed out if one starts having battery issues, and they can be easily modified with different "bodies" so the robot "bases" underneath are really interchangable (the "body" designs were done primarily by John Brost, who managed to make some truely iconic designs out of a minimum of parts). Really, I could talk about it a lot... but a descent video beats my ramblings hands-down:
If you can make it to Brickworld, stop be and enjoy it... and if you can't make it to Brickworld, browse Steve's Monster Chess webpage and take a look at the videos there and the descriptions. With more than 100,000 pieces and 32+ NXTs, it's probably not commercially viable... but it is awesome to watch.
--
Brian Davis
Monster Chess
The idea is sim
ple - a chess game where you can play against the computer. But the implementation here is what's truely monster about it. Each piece is its own autonomous robot, and there are actually a couple of 'spares' (as well as NXTs built into the King & Queen), so that ends up with 38 separate NXTs that must be controlled, commanded, and communicated with. Ron McRae did the bulk of the software work on the PC end for this, and it realy works well. The board has squares based on the large LEGO baseplates, making the entire assembly roughly 12' on a side. On top of that is a way to input the humans moves, and a laptop running chess software and helping make everything move smoothly. Even the pieces can be changed out if one starts having battery issues, and they can be easily modified with different "bodies" so the robot "bases" underneath are really interchangable (the "body" designs were done primarily by John Brost, who managed to make some truely iconic designs out of a minimum of parts). Really, I could talk about it a lot... but a descent video beats my ramblings hands-down:If you can make it to Brickworld, stop be and enjoy it... and if you can't make it to Brickworld, browse Steve's Monster Chess webpage and take a look at the videos there and the descriptions. With more than 100,000 pieces and 32+ NXTs, it's probably not commercially viable... but it is awesome to watch.
--
Brian Davis
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Brickworld 2010 - 30 Days 'Till Competition
Brickworld 2010 is rapidly approaching. If you've been, you know it's an incredible experience, getting together AFoL's from all over to share their amazing creations. If you haven't been... it's well worth the trip. With just 30 days to go preparations are in full swing, & I thought I'd mention a few aspects that might appeal to the Mindstorms crowd. There will be displays with the NXT there, and also some head-to-head competitions. There will be Robot Basketball (collisions on the field? So much the better), Robot Jousting (risk of NXT's hitting the floor? Always exciting), and even NXT sinking into the pool (a LEGO pool challenge... although not explicitly robotic, it certainly could be in the future). There will also be FLL style events, and lot of other fun things going on, including people to meet and talk to, and plenty of ideas running around... not to mention give-aways, prizes, etc. for full admission (and for those who can't be there the entire time, there's always the public days). Please feel free to check out the links and we hope to see you in Chicago soon!
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Brickworld 2010 - The Phenomenon Grows
Brickworld is a huge LEGO "convention" or fan-gathering that was started a few years ago, and has rapidly grown into one of the larger such event in North America. It takes place near Chicago, IL, and the information for this year has been released. But as a bonus, there's a second event. More of a public expo than a fan-driven show, it should also be a fun activity for those in the area around Indianapolis, IN, this year. If you want to see more LEGO than you've even seen before in your life, with entire train layouts, GBC's, robots, sculptures, custom fan-designed pieces (big vendor area), contests (ever seen a LEGO trebuchet throw a LEGO train car 10 meters... or the aftermath?), and a wild collection of fans of all ages, I'd strongly suggest attending. Here's the detailed post off of LUGNET:Share - Learn - Explore - Discover
The team at Brickworld is excited to announce that registration for the 2010 event at the Westin will open on January 1st. We look forward to seeing everyone in Chicago in June. We are presently updating the web site to provide an improved registration experience. The updates will be rolled into the web site over the next couple weeks and ready for January 1st.
One of the changes will be a modified home page. The home page will show the Brickworld event at the Westin and a new event called Brickworld Indy. Brickworld at the Westin in Chicago is THE convention, THE AFOL event, THE place you want to be.
Brickworld Indy is a new concept. It is a public exhibition only (similar to Saturday and Sunday of the Brickworld convention in Chicago). Brickworld Indy is a partnership between Brickworld and IndyLUG. The intent of the exhibition is to showcase the creations of IndyLUG to the public. So, there is no convention side, no on line registraiton, no raffles, and it is not open for anyone to display. However, it will still be a fun place to hang out on Saturday & Sunday and see friends and we would love to have AFOLs around to enjoy the event.
We hope to see you in June at the Westin for Brickworld 2010!!
The theme is picked...the event kits are designed...the artwork is in process...things are in full swing. Don’t wait. Start building now and remember to include lighting for the 2nd annual World of Lights Collaboration.
Stay tuned for more information.
Regards, the Brickworld Team
Brickworld will be held June 17 - 20, 2010 at the Westin North Shore Hotel in Wheeling, IL (a suburb of Chicago).
Brickworld Indy will be held March 13 and 14, 2010 at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, IN
To see more details or register to attend, please visit the Brickworld website:
http://www.brickworld.us/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)