Robotics Monday: Mechanical Logic Gates

Name of Models: LEGO Logic Gates

Created by: The Goldfish Online

Found at: http://goldfish.ikaruga.co.uk/logic.html

Details: (Pictured left: an AND gate. The rest of this post refers to the full group of gates discussed at the website mentioned above). I've previously mentioned a machine that uses pneumatic logic gates, but pneumatics aren't the only way to try out the LEGO-based logic gates concept. This mechanical approach may be a bit easier (although the parts are less expensive, this is still likely to strain your parts collection if you try it at home). These logic gates move axles laterally to indicate input and output values. They do a good job of showing the principles of logic gates - but perhaps, as with the pneumatic walkers, there may be a way to use these in clever ways to build other LEGO machines as well. At the very least, if you have enough of these working without much loss between them, you could build a computer...

Apologies for the delay on this post, which was written in advance...but then the entire post apparently disappeared overnight. We're looking into the issue now, but still don't know why this wasn't up first thing this morning.