Photos from MUP/MDP meeting in Atlanta

1. Soren was using Steve's Bluetooth control to have some fun with the small tribot. Just a side-note: The Bluetooth control also had PONG loaded on it... I'm not kidding. Apparently Soren and Paal are not very good at the game :) Mark (from California) and I could only watch as the head of the Mindstorms NXT division demonstrated his driving skills...

2. Bryan, Soren, and Paal... you can see Soren using the large wheel on the control. Depending on whether he was controlling Bryan's robot or Steve's robot, the wheel had a different effect. Soren was having so much fun with it, he wouldn't let go of it... (see picture #4).

3. Paal had his turn... at one point he had the small bot doing 360's... just spinning in place like crazy, but not going anywhere. It was fast and care had to be taken not to drive it off the table. Steve and Mark watched (Steve kept saying "you break it, you're buying me another...").

4. It was a good visit with Soren and Paal... they're good guys and really enjoyed themselves. It came as no surprise that these 2, working for a toy company, still laughed and had fun with the robots. They asked a lot of questions - and Paal told some funny stories. Apparently, many of these LEGO leaders refer to important decisions by giving them names based on the location they were when the decision was made. Bluetooth is referred to as the kitchen-in-California decision. Paal tells us that's where they were when Bluetooth was given the go-ahead.

5. Peter (from South Africa) was our unofficial spokesman for the FLL. He made sure that Soren and Paal heard his concerns and praises for both the RCX and NXT in the competitions. I enjoyed meeting him and hearing about his work with the students in South Africa.

Celebrating MINDSTORMS with a Remix - Part 3

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

Celebrating MINDSTORMS with a Remix - Part 2

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

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

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