The Green Monster, Team Hassenplug

Steve Hassenplug has done some amazing work over the years, and one of his newer models is no exception. I first saw this in person at NI Week '07, and was impressed with both the abilities of the big green wheels, as well as the novel turning and steering system. In The Green Monster, the front wheels are independently driven to allow differential steering. But in addition, the rear wheels are articulated to the front body, but also driven by the third NXT motor, leading to more power, and a wonderfully fun skidding way of going around tight turns.

Much more impressive than the look or power of this beast (it handles dirt, grass, and other surfaces with ease... I'm waiting for the snow fan-tailing videos), is the fact that Steve has used it as a testbed for coupling GPS navigation with the NXT. Take a look at the videos (from 14 Sep) on Steve's webpage for some impressive (not to mention rather humorous) navigation attempts (PS, Steve's back yard is considerably steeper than it looks in the video). Currently Steve is using RobotC to drive the robot, which is completely autonomous, simply following a set of waypoint coordinates. He's also used pbLua to communicate with the GPS, and there are even some people who have managed this with the stadard firmware (although it's rather unclear right now exactly how that is done).

Now, anybody know where I can get a really small, simple, BT-equiped GPS unit? Serenity needs a captain... :-).

--
Brian Davis

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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