The ROBOTMAK3RS Blog brings together news and information related to the LEGO® MINDSTORMS®, SPIKE Prime, WeDo, BOOST and PoweredUp LEGO robotic platforms. It is operated by the ROBOTMAK3RS RLOC. Read more about us at robotmak3rs.com.
Fan created logo designed by Marina Stamboli, Greece
In honor of LEGO® MINDSTORMS 20th ANNIVERSARY the LEGO HOUSE in Billund, Denmark held an exhibition from Sept 1st to 16th 2018. Of course there was also the traditional celebration cake for all the employees that have been involved with MINDSTORMS throughout the years.
#MINDSTORMS20 Celebration cake, Billund, Denmark
The large MINDSTORMS family
The exhibit featuring 20 years of creations from fan around the world
In September 2018, LEGO® MINDSTORMS celebrates it’s 20th anniversary.
The
journey began in September 1998. That year, the LEGO MINDSTORMS RCX
Robotics Invention System was launched after nearly a decade of
collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to
develop an “intelligent brick” that would bring LEGO creations to life
via computer programming, motors, and sensors. The late Seymour Papert
developed the ideas behind the “intelligent brick”. Together with MIT’s
Media Lab, Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen, and LEGO, Papert helped to develop
MINDSTORMS.
Shortly after the launch in 1998, Kjeld Kirk
Kristiansen and inventor Dean Kamen, founded FIRST* LEGO League – a
robotics competition for middle school students. Today, the competition
has grown to 35.000 teams with over 250.000 children in 88 countries.
What
started with LEGO MINDSTORMS in 1998, sparked the expansion of new
offerings for children and playful adults to explore robotics and
coding. LEGO now has an entire spectrum of products for children to
learn coding: LEGO MINDSTORMS and WeDo were created by the educational
division LEGO Education, LEGO BOOST was developed for younger children,
and the newly launched LEGO DUPLO Train gives preschoolers a great way
to start coding.
Since the launch of MINDSTORMS a large and very
passionate community of robotics and LEGO fans have played a vital role
in inspiring children, future engineers, and software developers, by
pushing the limits for what you can do with LEGO MINDSTORMS. This
exhibition in front of you is a tribute to all the inspiration the fans
have given to the robot builders of tomorrow. The community is organized
through www.robotmak3rs.com
* For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology
Below is a video edited by robotmak3rs' Ahmad Sahar featuring every robot that was presented at the exhibit.
LEGO MINDSTORMS Milestones:
September
1998: The Robotics Invention System is launched simultaneously in the
United States and the United Kingdom. Two expansion sets, RoboSports and
Extreme Creatures, are also made available.
September 1999: The
Robotics Discovery Set, Ultimate Accessory Set, Droid Developer Kit and
the Robotics Invention System 1.5 are released in the United States.
February
2000: The Robotics Invention System 2.0, Dark Side Developer Kit™ (a
pre-programmed, remote controlled robot kit), Vision Command System™ (a
PC camera expansion kit for the RIS), and Exploration Mars™ (themed
robot challenges, building instructions and games for the RIS) expansion
set are unveiled at the American International Toy Fair in New York.
August 2006: LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT is launched
April 2007: FIRST LEGO League exceeds 100,000 participants for the first time.
May 2008: LEGO MINDSTORMS is inducted to the Carnegie Mellon University Robot Hall of Fame.
August 2009: The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT 2.0 platform iteration is released.
January
2013: The 15th anniversary of LEGO MINDSTORMS is celebrated and the
next generation platform, LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3, is unveiled at the
International Consumer Electronics Show (CES).
September 2013: The third incarnation of LEGO robotics, LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3, is launched worldwide.
The ROBOTMAK3RS continued their celebration of the 25th Anniversary of MINDSTORMS through these Fall and Winter remix projects. Each ROBOTMAK3R was tasked with selecting one LEGO set of their choice and combining it with a MINDSTORMS set. Below are the five amazing models they came up with. Braill3 by Jerry Nicholls Braill3 is an EV3-based LEGO Braille bricks reader. This robot uses its fingertip, made from three touch switches, to read messages written using the LEGO Braille bricks and will speak out what it detected. If it sees a simple maths problem it will attempt to solve it and give the answer as well. To learn more about the process of creating this machine, read Jerry's blog . Braill3 can be viewed here . Set Review: The Braille Bricks set is well thought out. The ratios of the letters is suitable for general use and the addition of some punctuation and arithmetic operators is excellent. There is a card showing what bricks there are and their quantities, but no form of sort
In celebration of the 25th Anniversary of MINDSTORMS, we take a trip through history. Please also visit ROBOTMAK3RS Community every week as we highlight different projects all through 2023 in celebration of the anniversary. Some of the early history is based on the content shared by Coder Shah in our MINDSTORMS EV3 Community Group . Some of the text and links may have been edited from his original posts for consistency and clarity. 1984 - Kjeld Kirk Kristiansen watched a TV program called "Talking Turtle," where MIT professor Seymour Papert demonstrated how children could control robot "turtles" using LOGO, a programming language he developed. 1988 - The collaboration between MIT and LEGO resulted in LEGO TC Logo in 1988, which allowed students to control LEGO models using computer commands. The video shows Papert demonstrating TC Logo. 1990 - LEGO TC Logo was hampered since the robots you built had to be tethered to a personal computer. LEGO and MIT
The ROBOTMAK3RS continued their celebration of the 25th Anniversary of MINDSTORMS through these summer and fall remix projects. Each ROBOTMAK3R was tasked with selecting one LEGO set of their choice and combining it with a MINDSTORMS set. Below are the five amazing models they came up with. Remote controlled material handle r by Jozua van Ravenhorst (aka Mr Jo) This remix combines the LEGO Technic Material Handler (42144) with MINDSTORMS EV3 (31313) It uses the power of pneumatic cylinders to move objects around. By using a bluetooth remote control, very precise movements can be made with this model. Touch sensors in the base chassis prevent the turret twisting the cables that go through the turntable to much. The program has several protections to prevent over pressurizing the system for each of the 3 individual pumps and valves that control the 2 booms and claws. The real version of this machine is mostly used in waste material sites to bring the material to machines that sort and