ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

Every year around Christmas Google sponsors with 40 million $ some projects around the globe in areas that are close to the heart of the company: education in science and technology, education for girls, promotion of technology and projects against human trafficking and modern slavery. In 2011 gone by, there was a NXT-based project amongst them! The German project Roberta is an initiative by the Fraunhofer Institut that aims to promote interest and education of girls in science and technology by using LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT. The NXT STEP that has now and then blogged about Roberta in the past wishes to compliment Roberta for that achievement and acknowledgment of its great work. Cudos!

We are all familiar with what Google has done with the invention of it's Street View Car.. and we see the result each time we click on Street View* on Google Map!  Well Mark Crosbie has recently completed his latest version of the LEGO STREET VIEW CAR and it works pretty much the same way as the real thing...  Here is a video showing the history behind this project: Worth mentioning is that Mark and his LSVC will be present at the World Robotics Olympiad finals held in Abu Dhabi this year -- If you are a WRO finalist and will be present in AD this coming week, be sure to go visit The Robotics Experts booth in the main hall and check this cool Mindstorms creation in action. More detail on Mark LSVC can be found here: http://www.mastincrosbie.com/Marks_LEGO_projects/LEGO_Projects.html More details on the WRO can be found here: http://wroboto.org/en/ * Maybe one day we will be able to see LEGOLAND under Google Map's Street View mode!! :D

Last week, Google has announced a global online science competition, the Google Science Fair. Next to the NASA, Scientific American, National Geographic and CERN, one of the partners is The LEGO® Group. Any 13 - 18 year old (or according teams) all over the world can submit science projects (in English) in the categories CS & Math, Earth & Environmental Sciences, Behavioural & Social Sciences, Flora & Fauna, Energy & Space and Inventions & Innovation until first of April and win valuable prizes - the 15 best teams will invited to the Google Headquarters in California. An introductory video (containing some MINDSTORMS also) can be found on YouTube: Also, do not miss the movie on the launch event which took place on January 11. And, most important in case you are between 13 and 18 years old: do not miss to take part.

On Friday, Google announced on the Google Code Blog that AppInventor , its Cloud-based programming platform for Android , supports LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT now: "[...] a fun 20% robotics project that resulted in three ways you can play with your iRobot Create®, LEGO® MINDSTORMS®, or VEX Pro® through the cloud. We did this by enhancing App Inventor for Android, contributing to the open source Cellbots Java app, and beefing up the Cellbots Python libraries. Together these apps provide new connectivity between robots, Android, the cloud, and your browser." Seems the whole mobile-NXT thing is gaining momentum. :) Try it out and tell us about your experiences.

GLXP-mindstorms-robot AUSTIN, TX – NIWeek (August 5, 2009) – The X PRIZE Foundation , Google Inc., LEGO Systems, National Instruments , and Wired’s GeekDad will announce “MoonBots: A Google Lunar X PRIZE LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Challenge” today at National Instruments NIWeek 2009. The new contest will challenge small teams comprised of children and adults to design, program, and construct robots that perform simulated lunar missions similar to those required to win the $30 million Google Lunar X PRIZE, a private race to the Moon designed to enable commercial exploration of space while engaging the global public. full information: http://www.moonbots.org/ Martyn