Robot Remix #6 - CAT3RPILLAR

The Cat3rpillar by Anika Vuurzoon and Nard Strijbosch

The Caterpillar is a unique combination of the LEGO Technic Forest Machine (42080) and LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 31313 set.

Design Idea:

Anika and Nard have a background in building LEGO animals. Therefore, when given the opportunity come up with their own remix design, their first thought was to construct an animal. The Technic Forest Machine set comes with pneumatic elements and this gave them the idea to create an animal that would crawl. The green panels in the Technic set were a perfect fit for this project. The idea of a caterpillar was born!

They started with an initial design sketch. The most challenge part of the construction was making the caterpillar crawl as fast as possible. To do this, they had to gear up the pneumatic pump to make it pump fast enough to ensure that there was sufficient air pressure.

Although the final design has all the functions in the original sketch, Anika and Nard did have to redesign their model a few times given that they were limited to the elements available in the two sets. For example, given the limited number of green panels, they had to come up with a few different designs for the body of the caterpillar. The end result is a very friendly, crawling, green Cat3rpillar powered by MINDSTORMS and pneumatics.

How it Works:

The touch sensor is used to activate the crawling mechanism on the Cat3pillar. The pneumatic cylinders make the caterpillar move forward. The pneumatic switch is controlled by the EV3 brick. When an obstacle is confronted by the insect, the caterpillar stops moving. The Infrared sensor is used to detect the obstacle. The color sensor is used for an additional interactive feature. When the Cat3rpillar sees green, the head will move. When it sees red, the head will stop.

Watch the video to see how it all works.

Build Instructions and Code:

You can create your own Cat3rpillar using the following instructions.

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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