Event Coverage: Austin, Texas - South By Southwest 2012 LEGO MINDSTORMS RUMBLE

LEGO MINDSTORMS and the Google Developers mixed again for another awesome event that reminded me of the movie "Running Man"..and I was Arnie. Rolling into Austin, Texas for SXSW was like driving a tornado in fast-forward. The trip squeezed in on short notice and immediately the darkening skies started raining windy oceans. Probably brought in by LEGO's Steven Canvin and crew flying in from some place with water...helping the rough drought year here in Texas. So, Thanks LEGO! With help from Steven 'The Human Vice' we 4-hour force-created the race table center-piece that helped rock the SXSW experience for the large turnout that braved the rain to join this event. The reward ... Beautiful Sunshine and high-stakes prizes...Android Tablets!

SXSW is a Music, Film and Interactive festival encompassing downtown and normally drawing huge numbers of all kinds from everywhere. The festival is something that lasts over a week and provides way more cool happenings than human mortals should ever attempt to experience safely. This year may have gotten off to a slower very wet start than in past years. But the clouds cleared to blue sky and the sun fired the festival into full-speed driving folks to the SXSW 2012 LEGO MINDSTORMS RUMBLE! A day-build/night-race at the Google Dev House...with a no-kit-pieces-barred fight through a nasty obstacle course to the finish. This year, LEGO MINDSTORMS and the Google Developers orchestrated another party that exceeded every expectation. The MINDSTORMS RUMBLE began at 10:30am, teams formed, and they were handed fresh NXT kits. Some had more prep-time than others before the race started well after dark. Many contestants and spectators claimed to have ditched speaker sessions and other parties to come to ours.

The whole event was live-streamed all the way to the big screens in adjacent rooms and the whole other-world webbernet thing too. Something that wasn't clear through the tornado to warn possible spectators before-hand. Those that were there know the level of coolness this event exhibits every year. Those that missed the event and the Live feed can still wonder at the wildness that keeps Austin Weird...EVENT VIDEO HERE...tubed just for you! Spot me wearing the brown shirt and hat dashing under Tyler's arm at 1:36:10.

The video is long but covers the contest completely, so grab some popcorn and get that beer robot to keep'em coming! The whole storm really was "unbelievable" and the running man made it back home.

2011's LEGO MINDSTORMS SXSW event video is available HERE. If you notice anything similar in this video...please, comment below for extra points.

Christopher R. Smith
Littlehorn

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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