NXT Spider incorporates NXT Motor shape

This realistic looking Spider project will walk forward and backward in response to presses on the NXT buttons. Designing walking things is hard, and this project cheats in two ways. First, it doesn't carry the weight of the NXT (you hold that in your hand as a remote), and also it really only half walks -- it alternately steps on one side while rolling on the bottom side of the gears on the other side... But it looks like it's really walking! For a nice treatment of NXT animals that walk for real (including a non-cheating spider), see The LEGO Mindstorms NXT Zoo by contributor Fay Rhodes.

What motivated this project was using the shape of the NXT motor as part of the visual design of the creature rather than just finding a way to get it in there and/or hiding it. I was struggling to use the NXT motor in another design, and suddenly it started looking like I was trying to strap a huge ant to the underside of a car or something... So I bailed out on that design and made a spider instead.

I'm a gear-headed engineer type who normally thinks in terms of vehicles instead of animals, so to me the shape and design of the NXT motor is not only strange but downright unhelpful at times. If I had my way, the NXT motors would be compact cubes covered with peg holes on all sides (sort of like the Power Functions motors but with rectangular/flat sides and the dead space used for more mounting holes). Nevertheless, I have tried to use the shape to visual advantage in a few other designs, such as a reindeer body, Santa's body, a dog body, and more subtly as a puppy's hips, or gymnast's legs.

I'm sure that some of the more artistically or biologically-oriented designers out there have done some nice things with the shape of the NXT motors. Feel free to respond with a link to designs in which you have made the shape of the NXT motor work for you or seen it in help in somebody else's design.

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 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

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

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