ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

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Meet the ROBOTMAK3R: Arvind Seshan

ROBOTMAK3R Profile Arvind Seshan is a college student from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. He began building with MINDSTORMS at the age of six and has won numerous accolades for his work including winning the Champion’s Award at FIRST World Championships and having his robots displayed at events all around the world. He has taught over a million students how to build and program with LEGO MINDSTORMS and SPIKE Prime. When not working with LEGO, he is usually working on his science research which has also won international-level awards. Sometimes the two areas collide and Arvind uses MINDSTORMS in his research or uses the knowledge from his research in his MINDSTORMS projects. Arvind enjoys teaching and mentoring other students. At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he hopes to collaborate with the Media Lab's Lifelong Kindergarten group where MINDSTORMS and Scratch were born. How did you get started playing with LEGO MINDSTORMS? I owned a few small LEGO Star Wars sets such a

Meet the ROBOTMAK3R: Anna Opsahl

Anna Hui Opsahl is an engineering student from Norway. She is known for reverse engineering complicated LEGO models and for her MINDSTORMS droids. Anna likes to make LEGO robots from movies and television that are recognizable by kids and adults. She often builds digital models in Studio.io before she makes a physical version because this gives her a good idea of all the parts needed. When she is building them in Studio, she makes a rough instruction for herself that she can refer back to when she starts the physical build. Anna was a competitor in the first season of LEGO Masters Norway in 2021. She has won several awards at Norwegian LEGO conventions for her MINDSTORMS droids. Most recently, she was nominated in the category "Best Mechanical Creation" and won in the category "Best Star Wars" at Brickworld Chicago. How did you get started playing with LEGO MINDSTORMS/LEGO Robots? I have always been fascinated by LEGO robots and robotics. I love that you can build a

Celebrating MINDSTORMS with a Remix Part 1

In honor of the 25th Anniversary of MINDSTORMS, we asked ROBOTMAK3RS to combine a LEGO set of their choice with a MINDSTORMS set. Here is what these five ROBOTMAK3RS came up with. MINDSTORMS Chess Assistant by Arvind Seshan Overview: When you are new to chess, it can be a challenge to remember which pieces go where. Now, you can use machine learning and LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor to build a tool to help you learn where all the chess pieces go on the chess board. Sets used: LEGO® Iconic Chess Set (40174) and MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor (51515) Review: I really like how the chess set base can store all the pieces underneath and that the board neatly splits in half for handy storage. The chess pieces themselves are very sturdy and well built. My only criticism is the building of the box itself. It was quite difficult to see what pieces to use and since the entire box is made mostly of thin plates, it took a lot of time and patience. I would have liked the storage area to be sliding dra

Youth LEGO Robotics Competitions

There are several competitions for young people that specifically focus on the use of LEGO robots. The objective of all these competitions is to give children the opportunity to learn mechanical design and programming skills. This article provides an overview of a few of the well-know competitions. Click on the links and learn more about each competition. FIRST LEGO League Challenge is for students aged 9-14 in North America and 9-16 elsewhere. There are no age-based divisions in general, although some regions do offer divisions for regional contests. The challenge details are released around August 1 of each year. Teams of 2-10 students must design a robot that completes approximately 15 missions on a themed game table made up of LEGO-based missions. For example, the 2022 theme was called SUPERPOWERED and all the missions were related to the production, storage, and transport of energy. When you register a team, you will be allowed to purchase a Challenge kit that includes all the L

Celebrating 25 Years of MINDSTORMS

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

MINDSTORMS Retires!

2023 is the 25th Anniversary of the MINDSTORMS brand. For 25 years, MINDSTORMS has educated and inspired a generation of robot builders, both children and adults. Unfortunately, the LEGO Group decided to end the line on December 2022. Many ROBOTMAK3RS have been passionately involved with the development of MINDSTORMS through the MUP and MCP programs. Even with the newest Robot Inventor line, several ROBOTMAK3RS were invited to submit additional bonus models that were included in the official app. Regardless of the retirement of a major LEGO robotics product line, ROBOTMAK3RS continue to MAKE-SHARE-INSPIRE using all LEGO robotics platforms available to us. Here is the official statement from LEGO. Since its launch in September 1998, LEGO MINDSTORMS has been one of the core ‘Build & Code’ experiences in the company’s portfolio, carrying with it significant brand equity and becoming a stand-out experience for the early days of consumer robotics and leading to current Build & Code