ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

So last night I stayed up till 2:30AM to watch the NASA Live feed as Curiosity was doing it's remarkable landing on MARS... At the same time I was imagining how cool an NXTfied model of Curiosity would be!!  Well today I discovered that while I was just starting to think about it... a team of LEGO Robotics Expert where actually ready to show off their latest version! That's right, Doug Moran and Will Gorman were at the "Build the Future in Space" event at NASA's Kennedy Space Center with an awesome fully functional LEGO MINDSTORMS Curiosity model Check out the video of it in action: Little did I know, they did a presentation of this robot when Curiosity launched back in November 2011,  in other words, they have been working at this for as long as it took Curiosity to get to Mars!! go to Will's website to see more video and early prototypes of the LEGO MINDSTORMS Curiosity http://battlebricks.com/curiosity/ I really like how it turned out! Nice job guy...

On brickengineer.com , there's a nice online article today on the usage of LEGO® MINDSTORMS NXT for prototyping at the NASA: the KnuthLab LEGO Exploration Rover developed by the Knuth Cyberphysics Lab acts "as a testbed for robotic intelligence and navigation software" ,  as the page states. Read the full article here .

On a web page of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory , I ran about an interesting mobile robot design that might be worthwhile to implement with a NXT robot also: the " Axel rover system ": The big green LEGO® Technic wheels come easily to mind...

Culturelab a new scientist webblog , real nice to read, not only the LEGO article. read more about the LEGO Sumo robot and NASA logo

How awesome is this!  The LEGO Shuttle (that our own Bazmarc has been a part of) has been at the Kennedy Space center as part of the celebrations for the final shuttle launch. But it gets better, the model itself has been signed by some NASA astronauts! Congrats Andrew, Marc-Andre and John! Edit: Pics taken from Andrew's blog -  http://08milluz.wordpress.com/

LEGO Mindstorms Space Shuttle Release Date April 16th, 2011 Description Scale model of the NASA Space Shuttle. Integrating 4 NXT flight controllers and 2 remotes, the shuttle can move side to side and move its Canadarm.   Flight control is provided by Hitechnic Accelerometers, Gyroscopes, and color sensors. General Information Flight Crew: John Brost Marc-Andre Bazergui Andrew Milluzzi Mission Control: The LEGO Group Mission The LEGO® space shuttle Enterprise’s mission is to continue to inspire and encourage children to explore science and math just as the real space shuttles and other NASA projects have inspired countless current and future scientists and engineers. Website lmsshuttle photos http://legospace.com http://mindstorms.lego.com First public appearance was during Yuri's Night Party, celebrating the 50th anniversary of the first human spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin and the 30th anniversary of the first space shuttle lift-off. The even...

NASA have collated a enormous collection of Robotics activities to use in the classroom. Activities are designed for a variety of different age groups and abilities. It looks like it has not been updated for a few years, and the majority of activities are designed for use with the older RCX, but there is no reason you couldn't modify them to suit the NXT. If you're a teacher, have a look through a few (there are 300) and let us know in the comments which one is your favourite. My favourite is "Junkyard Wars: Mechanical Monsters" Date Posted: 12.27.04 http://robotics.nasa.gov/rcc/general.php?ID=1218 -- Damien Kee www.domabotics.com

Hi Folks! This may be approaching the edge of "off-topic", but it may encourage someone out there to look further into the rabbit hole. Here is the 'inspirational view' of the Space Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory and Test Facility. Wait for it to load, then click and have a look around (use your center mouse wheel to zoom in/out). Related to MINDSTORMS NXT? Sort of, there is a connection though...click for it here . Please, enjoy. The view will soon be moved to a better location. Christopher

The 2008 NASA Tech Briefs "Create the Future" Design Contest, presented by SolidWorks, is now open for entries. For official rules and to submit your entry, click here . The seventh annual contest welcomes innovative design ideas in the following categories: -Machinery, Equipment, and Component Technology -Consumer Products -Medical -Safety and Security -Transportation -Sustainable Technologies The Create the Future contest awards a Grand Prize of $20,000 and six First Prizes (one for each category) of Hewlett-Packard workstations. All qualified entrants receive a Create the Future Design Contest T-shirt. There is no purchase necessary to enter or win. Sponsored by SolidWorks, the contest is co-sponsored by: COMSOL Inc., Hewlett-Packard, and National Instruments, So, exercise your imagination, demonstrate your MINDSTORMS design and engineering skills, and share your best ideas. Good Luck! Chris

AlphaRex found his way to Houston, Texas, USA for a visit with me, Littlehorn, MDP/MCPer... new photos (w/ some NASA sites) have been added for the Global Roadtrip - check them out here !

For those of you who can't make it to the FLL World Championships but want to watch the event, NASA will be having a live webcast of the competition. You can go to it here . -Jonathan