The Source for LEGO Robotics and Educational Materials

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Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any photographs of LEGO Fireworks.  So there’s a challenge for you!

Oh, and for those of you who do fireworks, why not a LEGO NXT Robot to safely light them for you? 

Carnegie Mellon University is offering some Teacher Training coursers this summer (actually, this month).  They have both a LEGO MINDSTORMS and a VEX based course.

Summer Teacher Training Courses
Use robots to teach Science, Technology, Engineering and
Math (STEM) concepts.

Unfortunately, the LEGO course is full.  But here is the information for the course:

July 14 - 18   / July 28 - Aug. 1 (full)

Course includes….
• 5 days of on site, hands-on training
• Use of one LEGO MINDSTORMS robot and several sensors
• Use of Robotics Engineering Vols. I and Vol. II, and Teaching ROBOTC for LEGO MINDSTORMS content developed
  by the CMU Robotics Academy
• Act 48 Credits / 36 hours per class ( for Pennsylvania teachers only )
• Certificate of Completion for course ‘graduates’ - may be used to apply for Continuing Education hours
• Mapping of the curriculum with National Science Education (NSES) Standards, National Council of Teachers
  of Mathematics (NCTM) Standards, and International Technology Education Association (ITEA) Standards.
• Tour of the CMU National Robotics Engineering Center

More information at Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Academy.

UPDATE: The NXT Step has some comments, and a list of extra links related to Robotics and the Carnegie Mellon course.

• Robot City – Where CMU tests many of their robots.
• Robotics Institute
• National Robotics Engineering Center
• Robotics Academy

Yaya Lu is a primary school student.  Her claim to fame?  She was the only primary school student to compete in the Australian RoboCup Championships (well, in the "Premier Rescue" challenge anyhow).  And she won, beating out four high-school teams.

She’ll be going to China later this year to represent Australia in the World RoboCup Junior International next month (July).

Yaya, who speaks Mandarin and Shanghainese as well as English, is getting her robots revved up for a simulated rescue mission at the competition in Suzhou.

Competitors will be asked to put their robots through a three-room course, which involves retrieving a victim from a swamp.

"You need a lot of patience and sometimes it’s hard to get the robot to do what you want it to do," Yaya said.

Courtesy of The NXT Step

LEGO Education, a business unit of The LEGO Group, on Monday introduced Lego Education WeDo, a new robotics package designed for classrooms of primary school students ages 7 - 11. It’s coming in January, 2009 — pricing is yet to be announced.

The complete LEGO WeDo package includes:

• One motor, one motion sensor and one tilt sensor
• 158 brightly colored LEGO elements, including gears, and levers
• One LEGO USB Hub connects directly to a Mac/PC laptop, desktop, OLPC XO or Intel Classmate computer to allow control of hardware input (tilt and motion sensors) and output (motor), thereby bringing models to life
• Drag-and-drop icon-based software that provides an intuitive and easy-to-use programming environment suitable for beginners and experienced users alike, developed by a leading provider of engineering hardware and software, National Instruments
• Activity pack CD-Rom provides up to 24 hours of instruction and includes 12 activities based on four themes: Amazing Mechanisms, Wild Animals, Play Soccer and Adventure Stories. Running alongside programming software, activities are introduced via animations. Teacher notes and glossary are also included.

Courtesy of MacWorld and BizJournals

Ever wanted to control some RC Servos with your NXT?  Such as for making your own UAV? How about 10 Servos per sensor port! 

In 2008, Lattebox a hi-tech company located in Taiwan, launch a new kind of NXT device, NXTe. NXTe allows controlling RC servos easily. NXT brick has 4 sensor port inputs to control NXT sensors as Ultrasonic Sensors, Compass Sensors, NXTCam Sensors, etc.

If you connect Lattebox NXTe in any free input sensor port, you could manage until 10 RC Servos with your NXT brick with an unique NXTe kit.

Read more about the leJOS implementation here.

Here is the company making the Lattebox NXTe . 

Link courtesy of The NXT Step.

If you’re like me, you fight with a Rubik’s Cube.  So why not let your LEGO Mindstorms NXT kit do the dirty work?

Hans Andersson has built a Rubik’s Cube solver.  “But this has been done before” you say.  True… except for this solver is built entirely from a stock NXT Retail Kit.  That’s right.  No extra parts.

The only extra thing you have to do, is replace some of the stickers on the cube with special ones so the NXT Light Sensor can differentiate between the colors.

You can download the LDD directions here, or read more about the NXT Retail Kit Rubik’s Cube Solver here.

Link courtesy of The NXT Step.

I was cleaning up some boxes yesterday in my office, and I found the original registration card for the LEGO Mindstorms RCX units (v 1.0 I think).  This RCX list is copyright LEGO.

Here is what it says:

Top 5 Things NOT To Do With Your RCX

5. Don’t give your RCX your credit card number.  It will just order more friends.

4. Don’t take your RCX to scary movies.  Especially ones involving vacuum cleaners.

3.  Don’t get into debates with your RCX about artificial intelligence not being as good as real intelligence.  You won’t win.

2.  Don’t let your RCX go on tour with ain Irish Step Dancing troupe.  Things could get ugly.

1. No matter how many times it asks you, never, never let your RCX drive.  Trust Us.

If you have any ideas for a “Top 5 Things NOT To Do With Your NXT” or a “Top 5 Things NOT To Do With Your VEX”, let me know.  I’ll compile a list and post them here.

Reasonably Clever is running a competition right now.  It’s to create a custom Iron Man specialty suit. 

Personally, I think this model of Iron Man is one of the best I’ve seen.  But… it’s a little larger than a standard LEGO Mini fig… so it doesn’t qualify for the contest.  :)

click image for high-res picture.

Part of the rules state:

At a minimum, your entry MUST contain a mech/hardsuit/armor worn or operated by a standard LEGO mini-figure.

Pumping Iron Link found via The Brothers Brick.

So far, I haven’t found anything to show that the .NET Micro Framework will work on the NXT brick. The processor on the NXT brick will support the Micro Framework, but it looks like there isn’t enough memory. If anyone has proof of this being done (or of it failing), please contact me.

I did find this post by Guy Ziv (from nxtasy.org):

he says (and I quote from Lugnet):

The .NET Micro Framework documentations
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/embedded/bb278106.aspx
says it requires at least 256K RAM and 512K Flash.

The NXT processor has 64K RAM and 256K Flash….

So, it looks like my fears are true. I was really looking forward to using .NET to program on the NXT. I’ll have to see what sort of controller I can find, and make some interface cables to use the NXT motors and sensors.

Microsoft has released an update to their .NET Micro Framework. This framework allows developers to use Visual Studio to develop for small devices.

New in the 2.5 Update:

• Web Services on Devices technology preview. Version 2.5 of the .NET Micro Framework includes a Web Services on Devices implementation compatible with the implementation built into Windows Vista and supported by the other Microsoft Windows Embedded platforms. With Web Services on Devices, devices can discover and communicate with Windows-based PCs or with other devices on the network with no user configuration.
• Native TCP/IP stack support. Version 2.5 of the .NET Micro Framework adds a native TCP/IP stack to the platform, making it easier than ever for original equipment manufacturers to build platforms with network connectivity.

You can read the Press Release for the .NET Micro Framework 2.5 Update here.