NXTlog Sumo Events

Last weekend, several of us got together to run the NXTlog Sumo contest. I'm pleased to say it went very well: from more than 100 entries we reviewed and selected until we had almost 30 that we felt were worth building, and then built them, downloaded the users programs, & ran them in a double-elimination event at Steve Hassenplug's house. The results were impressive - on the whole, the field of entries did far better than I had originally hoped, and there were a lot of exciting match-ups during the day. Well, NXTlog has announced the winners here in their special events section. I'll try to post more of my thoughts and details on this event here or on NXTlog over the next few days, but for now, take a look at the results on the NXTlog page, and if you entered this, (or even if you didn't), please let us know what you think.

Congratulations to everybody who participated, & very heartfelt thanks to all who helped with the event in question - we had outstanding support from LEGO, NXTlog, and several individuals, both on the day of and prior to the event itself.

The winning robot at the end of the day was "MG_Sumo", which used a unique wedge made of free-pivoting upside-down backhoe scoops (pictured above). There were a lot of other good designs, with blades & scoops tending to dominate the field. Staying on the ring itself was a trick with many robots (it always is), but a really surprising number of builders seemed to have cracked this first hurdle (trust me, many don't).

--
Brian Davis

ROBOTMAK3RS Review: LEGO River Steamboat

I thought the LEGO River Steamboat would be an interesting set for a ROBOTMAK3R review for a few reasons. First, the LEGO designer of the model is Marina Stampoli, a long-time collaborator of the late ROBOTMAK3R Vassilis Chryssanthakopoulo s. From earlier collaborations with Vassilis, I knew Marina was incredibly talented, with an eye for aesthetics and functionality. Her background in architecture is particularly useful for her relatively new position at LEGO. Her other sets include the Magic of Disney (21352), Message Board (41839), and Red London Telephone Box (21347). Second, watching Marina's reveal video and reading her designer interview made this set even more tempting to build. The gearing mechanisms running through the model gave way to many opportunities for automation using LEGO robotics elements. Since ROBOTMAK3RS is all about adding interactivity and automation to LEGO brick, I thought it would be fun to see where and how LEGO robotics could be added to this s...

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...

Ghostbusters R.T.V Remix

Nino Guba is from Torrance, California, USA. He played with LEGO as a kid, but growing up in the Philippines, it wasn’t something he had easy access to. He only got reintroduced to LEGO when he moved to the US and had kids of his own. When his sons were younger, they received LEGO sets as gifts, but as they grew older, the sets got put into storage as their interest faded. Fast forward a few years, he started coming up with his own product ideas and thought about how he could quickly prototype them. That’s when he discovered LEGO MINDSTORMS—and was hooked! He raided his kids’ old collection, got everything organized, and now he's designing and building his own creations, blending his coding skills with LEGO robotics to bring ideas to life. Tell us about your Ghostbusters Remote Trap Vehicle (R.T.V) project. This project is a LEGO Technic adaptation of the Ghostbusters R.T.V.—a ghost trap converted into a remote-controlled vehicle. Its companion build is a prop replica of the Futaba...

ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

Search This Blog