Saphiro: The Blue Dragon - Robot Remix #4

Saphiro, the Blue Dragon

by Anton Vanhoucke

Meet Saphiro, the Mighty Blue Dragon! It was built from the LEGO MINDSTORMS 31313 set and the Air Race Jet 42066 set for the # ROBOTREMIX4 contest.

It all started with a small sketch submitted for the competition.

The completed model is 83 cm long and 63 cm wide and weighs 1.4 kg. The model was designed in 20-30 hours and contains 813 LEGO bricks. Creating an LDD and EV3 file took another 16 hours.

The final model remained fairly close to original sketch.

In addition to the dragon, a rotating platform was also built from the pieces in the two sets to showcase the model. You can see Saphiro in action, along with the rotating platform in this video.

You can control the dragon with the IR remote. The programming is fairly simple. The most complex aspect of this creation was the walking, since the left and right legs must be synchronized. Unfortunately, after walking just a few steps, the legs usually get unsynchronized. Therefore, the programming includes a timer that resyncs the legs every 10 seconds when no buttons are pressed. Watch the video below for some of the behind-the-scenes aspects of the making of Saphiro.

You can build Saphiro too. Download the Studio 2.0 and the EV3 program file.

Hope you enjoy constructing and playing with Saphiro.

MINDSTORMS Retires!

2023 is the 25th Anniversary of the MINDSTORMS brand. For 25 years, MINDSTORMS has educated and inspired a generation of robot builders, both children and adults. Unfortunately, the LEGO Group decided to end the line on December 2022. Many ROBOTMAK3RS have been passionately involved with the development of MINDSTORMS through the MUP and MCP programs. Even with the newest Robot Inventor line, several ROBOTMAK3RS were invited to submit additional bonus models that were included in the official app. Regardless of the retirement of a major LEGO robotics product line, ROBOTMAK3RS continue to MAKE-SHARE-INSPIRE using all LEGO robotics platforms available to us. Here is the official statement from LEGO. Since its launch in September 1998, LEGO MINDSTORMS has been one of the core ‘Build & Code’ experiences in the company’s portfolio, carrying with it significant brand equity and becoming a stand-out experience for the early days of consumer robotics and leading to current Build & Code

Celebrating MINDSTORMS with a Remix Part 1

In honor of the 25th Anniversary of MINDSTORMS, we asked ROBOTMAK3RS to combine a LEGO set of their choice with a MINDSTORMS set. Here is what these five ROBOTMAK3RS came up with. MINDSTORMS Chess Assistant by Arvind Seshan Overview: When you are new to chess, it can be a challenge to remember which pieces go where. Now, you can use machine learning and LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor to build a tool to help you learn where all the chess pieces go on the chess board. Sets used: LEGO® Iconic Chess Set (40174) and MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor (51515) Review: I really like how the chess set base can store all the pieces underneath and that the board neatly splits in half for handy storage. The chess pieces themselves are very sturdy and well built. My only criticism is the building of the box itself. It was quite difficult to see what pieces to use and since the entire box is made mostly of thin plates, it took a lot of time and patience. I would have liked the storage area to be sliding dra

Machine Learning Meets MINDSTORMS

Machine Learning Extension LEGO MINDSTORMS announced today a brand new feature that is sure to excite all users. Machine Learning Extension is coming to the software in August 2022. This will allow users to implement new applications that were not possible before. Machine Learning has become exceedingly popular in recent years with applications in all sorts of industries from robotics to financial services to climate change. Now, even the youngest of robot enthusiasts and programmers have access to the world of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence. Comparing two classes Machine Learning on MINDSTORMS will work with both images and audio. For instance, you could train your model to recognize smiles and frowns on your face and have the emotion displayed on your hub. You could train your model to recognize when a red ball is present or not or identify a particular LEGO element. You can control your robot with audio commands that use your own voice. It is exciting to see what new p

ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

Search This Blog