Details: As seen in Zwolle recently, there is a new LEGO Mindstorms NXT-based version of Wall-E. This version tries to be strictly purist and true to the NXT system - not only does this not use any third-party robotics components, but this doesn't even use Power Functions motors (unlike the first great Wall-E we covered)! 8 NXT motors and 3 NXT programmable bricks were crammed in here to get this realistic and surprisingly expressive range of motion. While it doesn't transform, it seems to have every other Wall-E behavior down. Color sensors were even used to allow his eyes to light up in different colors. Don't miss the second link above, which has some photos of the internal mechanisms.
Details: Apparently the most popular Technic creation at BrickCon this year (it also won a trophy at that event), this seaplane with a wingspan of nearly 5 feet (just over 1.5 meters) is modeled after a DeHavilland Twin Otter.
I'm going to try to keep this short - although this hasn't been singled out post-documentation on any blogs, much has been said about it already. Here's the list of features from the flickr set above:
Specifications:
Wingspan 59.5 inch (151 cm)
Length 43 inch (110 cm)
Height 28 inch (71 cm)
Weight 26.5 lbs (12 kg)
Passengers 9 (incl. 2 Crew)
Motors 5
Cylinders 6 Large, 3 Small
Compressor 6 Cylinders Total
Switches 3
Sensors 1 Touch, 2 Rotation
Power 1 RCX, 2 Battery Packs
Pieces 20 000 (estimated)
Working Features:
Elevators
Rudder
Ailerons
Flaps
Landing Gear (With Main Gear Suspension & Casting Nose Gear)
Independently Variable Throttle
Independently Variable Propeller Pitch
Regulated Compressors in Engines
Regulated Auxiliary Compressor
Navigation Lights
Beacon Light
Passenger Entry Door
Sliding Pilot Seats (allowing entry)
Folding Wings
The information above is for the flickr set, but there's actually more documentation for this model spread out across a few sites. For the long write up (by a Technic expert who didn't build this personally - I've briefly mentioned his Technicopedia a few times), you'll need to look at this post on the Eurobricks forum (of all places - we actually try to avoid linking to Eurobricks because of their set-news-leaking habits). There are also photos (again, by Blakbird instead of the builder) on Brickshelf in a BrickCon 2010 directory, not to mention two YouTubevideos that were made by the builder. That's the extended reading when you're done with the 59 flickr photos linked above. For extra credit, write a report on that, create an LDRAW set of instructions for the plane, or build your own that's even larger, more detailed, or more functional.
Details: The day has finally come. A LEGO robot is now capable of assembling a variety of LEGO models on its own, working off of LDRAW instructions generated in MLCAD. Would you like a robot like this? You can download instructions and programs for it in a number of formats, including MLCAD. That MLCAD file will be handy when a later version of this robot needs to know how to make other robots.
For now, though, this robot is limited to various 2xX sized bricks - 1x2, 2x2, 2x3, 2x4, and 2x8. This limits it to fairly simple models, but the concept has been proven. Actually, the concept, in a way, had already been proven by the robots that this LEGO 'bot was inspired by. MakerBot and RepRap can print any shape three-dimensional shape using extruded plastic. The plastic? It's frequently a type of ABS (acrylonitrile butadiene styrene) - the same sort of plastic used to make LEGO bricks (naturally, LEGO uses a variation on the ABS formula that is kept fairly secret). We already knew that the possibilities were endless, this was just the variation on this sort of robot that we all wanted to see.
...and speaking of which, if you want to see this in person (without building your own or a robot that can build one for you), you can see it at LEGO WORLD 2010 in Zwolle, The Netherlands, from October 22nd to October 26th, 2010.
Apologies for the late posts the past few days - I've been feeling very sick and having a hard time focusing. Things should be back to regular speed for the rest of the week, although I'm still pretty stuffy.
Details: A dutch family with three generations of LEGO enthusiasts recently built this set of animals. A brilliant mix of NXT robotics and more traditional LEGO sculpture techniques, these life-size animals act out the action in the video above. It seems like there are never enough animations that use this technique instead of stop-motion. Here, we see the animals run around in a fairly realistic manner, down to the mother duck laying an "egg" (a ball from the NXT 2.0 kit, previously known as a Bionicle Zamor sphere) and the rat taking it to eat. A surprising amount of detail went into the robots here - check out the MOCpages links above to read more about them and see photos of the source material. Also of note (but I'm not aware of more of a close-up than in the video) is some of the background scenery - the life-size squirrel sculpture and duck's nest look great too.
Some tape (vinyl) was used to cover some of the NXT parts and make the NXT colors blend in well with the rest of the models. Further "cheating" was used to make the smaller ducks work with power functions motors and a battery set-up small enough to fit inside them (they're controllable through IR - which presumably is controlled by a third party NXT IR adapter). There's another video that explains how the ducks are made.
It's been a strange week in the LEGO robotics world. It appears that community hub http://nxtasy.org/ is not going to be coming back online. http://www.mindboards.net/ has now surfaced as a potential replacement - and frankly, it's got enough of the Mindstorms community's "stars" involved that it should have no problem bringing in most of us from nxtasy. These new forums are tied to a SourceForge project that aims to gather information, tools, and software for use with the NXT (presumably other LEGO programmable bricks as well, but NXT is the main focus). The site is still in it's infancy but worth a look if you're into Mindstorms.
Details: I'm generally not a big fan of custom sensors (or so-called "lie detectors", which are notoriously unreliable), but the simplicity of this project makes it stand out as the sort of homebrew electronics activity that pretty much anyone can handle. This custom sensor can be used with RCX or NXT (although I do recommend that you use other cables instead of cutting your LEGO 9V cables - it's relatively easy to connect other wires under a LEGO 9V connector, and LEGO will not be making any more 9V cables) - it takes advantage of the fact that raw resistance is trivial to measure using the LEGO hardware. Additionally, some extra activities that can be done with this custom sensor are suggested at the same webpage linked above.
Details: This NXT-based trumpet uses a Dexter IndustriesdPressure pressure sensor with one of the older style pneumatic pumps (I believe one of the earliest ones, actually) to create a mouthpiece that responds to how far it is pushed in. That plus three touch sensors (and what I'd imagine to be a considerable amount of programming) allows you to actually play music on this.
A similar design (that isn't well documented online anywhere, but is a staple of the builder's appearances at LEGO conventions) was built by Steve Hassenplug. That one measured rotation for the mouthpiece input.
Details: Making music with the NXT can be difficult. In my experience, there's a ton of great sounds you can make with the NXT, but the big problem is getting something loud enough to be enjoyable. The difficulty in hearing NXT-based music means that only interactive music presented in small areas actually ends up being enjoyable. Here's another robot that excels in that arena - a "sequencer" that spins and makes a sound based on the color "seen" by the color sensor. Looks like fun - now if only someone could find a practical way to make the speaker louder so we could "play" this "instrument" at proper concerts...
Details: Not too long ago, the Spanish-language LEGO Mindstorms NXT blog electricBricks wrote about holonomic robots. Holonomic driving systems are systems in which a vehicle has no turning radius - it can travel in direction without needing to have a "front" that is specifically powered. In the post I'm featuring today (as well as the video above), you can see a fully-functional, stable, and practical design for one made out of LEGO. While a three-wheeled version (as suggested in the earlier post) seems like a better idea at first glance, the difficulty of getting multi-directional wheels to work (and LEGO to fit into triangular shapes) makes it surprisingly complicated and often unsturdy. This one is fairly easy to build, with only turntables as a hard-to-find part you don't have enough of in the standard NXT kit.
Details: 222Doc claims to have created the first NXT-based biped that can climb stairs. I'll have to take him at his word for that (I'm not aware of any video to prove that, and he hasn't posted programs either). His new creation, though, is even more impressive - a quadruped robot with three-toed limbs that can climb like a sloth. That's the theory, anyway - the machinery has been tested to verify that it can handle the load of lifting it's own weight on ladders in any direction, but the programming's not done yet. This isn't quite purist - you can see some multiplexers and unofficial cable used so that the one NXT can control all of the motors (looks like 8 NXT motors and 4 Power Functions motors to me). Still - this is proof of concept for a type of four-legged walker we've never seen before. I can't wait to see one of these things crawling overhead at a LEGO or robotics event.
EDIT: This is what I get for rushing posts - it turns out that there is, in fact, a video of the X2 walking up stairs, and you can see other videos from the same builder on YouTube as well. More details about the X4 sloth 'bot can be found on the nxtasy forums.
Details: Normally I try to pick a robotics-based model to feature on Monday, but today, the best recent Mindstorms item to point you toward is actually an online magazine. Generally, the magazine I plug here is BrickJournal, which is available in print and published in English. However, Hispabrick Magazine (which is published online and aimed at the Spanish-speaking LEGO fan community - and can now be read/downloaded in an English version) is increasingly becoming noteworthy as well. The most recent issue, 008, is focused on Mindstorms NXT. Several members of the Mindstorms Community Partners team are profiled, and there are also interviews with Eric Albrecht (aka Blakbird) of Technicopedia fame and even current heir to the LEGO dynasty Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen himself.
Interestingly, in spite of the Spanish-speaking focus, some of the articles cover people and models from places that don't speak English or Spanish.
In addition to the great Mindstorms coverage, there are also plenty of non-robotics articles in this issue (and previous issues) as well - so if we skip day or two of blogging here (in favor of getting more going at BrickFair), consider this to be the "model" for the missing days as well.
You can view or download the magazine in English and/or Spanish from the link above.
Now, if only we could buy Hispabrick English in BrickJournal-style print compendiums...
Although I've put off featuring them in my "another blog you should read" series, The NXT Step is easily indispensable for us LEGO Mindstorms NXT fans. It may be a difficult read for those of you who aren't technically inclined, but they do try to keep it accessible for all ages. Several of the blog's authors have written books about working with the NXT, and quite a few of them are active in either the LEGO community or the educational community. In lieu of a regular model pick today, here are three recent highlights from The NXT Step:
In other news, the LEGO website has re-posted the online bonus models for the NXT 1.0 kit. They had originally been a casualty of a website update to include newer instructions for the NXT 2.0, but the company has since rectified the error and brought them back. Now, if they could just remember that they need to re-post the bonus instructions for set 8448...
Finally, they recently found a fantastic base for a very large robot on YouTube. The tank treads are made out of Technic beams, and the 9 NXT's and 16 Power Functions motors give this plenty of expense power:
Details: This batch of semi-autonomous NXT androids was also at this year's FANABRIQUES event. It's pretty common for LEGO conventions to have "themes" that are very loose and only attract a handful of theme-specific models. This year's FANABRIQUES theme was Space (which actually happens to be a popular theme that people tend to build in anyway). Taking up the challenge to bring the theme to the NXT, Matthias Paul Scholz built these two cute "astronauts" with one Mindstorms NXT 2.0 kit each. You can see in the video both a remote control mode (probably implemented via Bluetooth) and an automatic mode that passes out pamphlets.
Details: Remember the Pinball Machine we featured back in 2007? Someone inspired by that model has now created a Mindstorms NXT version. This one is also purist - all LEGO except for the ball (I suspect they could have used a LEGO ball too). Only 6 NXT bricks were used, compared to 13 RCX bricks in the original. A substantial amount of instructions are up at the site above, including source code (you know, for all of us with 6 spare NXT programmable bricks and over 8000 spare LEGO pieces to turn into a pinball machine).
Details: It's a bit hard to grasp the scale of this enormous chess set. Each piece is actually a large Mindstorms NXT robot. The base of each one is fairly standard, but the top of each one actually looks like a particular chess piece - some of them are even animated (note the kicking front legs on the knights). The 38 NXT programmable bricks here are controlled by a laptop through Bluetooth - which requires that the laptop is constantly disconnecting and reconnecting to the "brains" in each chess piece. A project of this scope is beyond the reach of most NXT fans, but since a few of the builders involved with this project have worked with the LEGO company before as part of MCP, MDP, and the BrickWorld staff (according to their bios on the BrickWorld site), I'm guessing that the cost of this (roughly $30,000 retail) was partially subsidized by the LEGO company. This is fully functional as a chessboard - you can play against the computer, play against another human player, watch the computer play against itself, or watch the chess robots act out a saved game. To see this in motion, you have to check out the two videos of this game in action at the site above. Alternatively, you could go to BrickWorld this upcoming weekend to see this in person when these robots make their LEGO convention debut.
Details: I would write more about this GBC, but I'm still spending time studying it. The video quality is a bit lacking, but the modules in this one are spectacular. Lots of brilliant stuff here - pneumatics, Mindstorms, trains (the train is controlled via RCX to stop and start in the right places to load/unload), an all-around great variety of both classic and very original sorts of mechanisms. There are even Spacewarp-style sections with loop-de-loops, a base 5 ball counter, and color-sensitive sorters to tell the basketballs and soccer balls apart. I'm not sure exactly where this layout was setup or how many people participated in constructing it, but I'm suitably impressed with all involved.
Details:
I'm afraid that this one video is all the documentation there is for this model (the short description on YouTube only says "A project of the robotics group of VHG Bogen / 25 RCX / 73 motors / costs: 8000€ / 2000 man hours"). While not as fast as the duck factory or car factory (masterminded by the YouTuber) we've previously featured here, it is another ambitious entry into this decidedly difficult and expensive genre. There are even multiple color variations that you can direct these factories to build! The possibilities for LEGO robots that can build their own LEGO models are virtually endless.
Of course, it's not time to worry about the robots taking over until someone builds a LEGO Mindstorms factory that builds other LEGO Mindstorms factories...
In lieu of a regular model for Monday, here's some interesting food for thought. I'm just pointing out this post on the NXT blog The NXT Step - it's about using mechanical solutions either in combination with or instead of using multiple motors, sensors, and a microprocessor. The post itself is excellent, and the comments are constructive and provide some additional ideas. It's well worth a read for Technic and Mindstorms fans.
Details: Here's an interesting idea - using the NXT tethered to another small computer to play a game on a PC. Apparently the builder had some custom embedded computer vision (CV) and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms in use. From his description:
Tetris-Bot is a Tetris-playing robot. Jay Leno would say "How lazy are we getting? Now robots play games for us!" Well, not exactly, but I agree, we are getting lazy. I made it in order to engage my kids in a fun and educational project. Tetris-Bot consists of a camera, a TI DM6437 DSP board (running my embedded vision and artificial intelligence algorithms), and a three-finger NXT robotic hand (that presses the keys on the computer keyboard). I was inspired by the NXT Rubik and Sudoku solvers and the Segway-like NXT robots. Unlike them, Tetris-Bot is not an NXT-only system, because the Brick has a limited input bandwidth. That's why I use a TI DM6437 DSP board to analyze the images coming from the camera, recognize the new shape, and find the best place and orientation for it. The instructions are communicated to the NXT robotic hand via LEDs on the board. HOPE YOU LIKE IT !!!
Details: The NXT 2.0's color sensor and disturbingly large quantity of Bionicle zamor spheres makes the kit perfectlysuited for machine guns and machines that sort balls by color. The builder I'm featuring today decided to try a few ball-sorter designs from the Internet and a few original designs. You can see four of Robin Newman’s designs at the link above, along with videos, code, building instructions, and information about what sets and parts you would need to build each version.
I know we're already running late, but in celebration of National Robotics Week in the US, we will be featuring additional robot-themed models this week.
can control all of the motors (looks like 8 NXT motors and 4 Power Functions motors to me). Still - this is proof of concept for a type of four-legged walker we've never seen before. I can't wait to see one of these things crawling overhead at a LEGO or robotics event.
-style sections with loop-de-loops, a base 5 ball counter, and color-sensitive sorters to tell the basketballs and soccer balls apart. I'm not sure exactly where this layout was setup or how many people participated in constructing it, but I'm suitably impressed with all involved.
makes the kit 
