ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

Autodesk , the company that will provide the software for the 3D building instructions in the upcoming MINDSTORMS generation EV3, has published a first video on how the user interface will look like:

Willow Garage seems to be a really cool place to work at -- if you remember the video of the PR2 robot fetching a cold one from the fridge you'll know what i mean -- and with the recently announced NXT-ROS software stack, based on NXT-Python, their days now include playing with LEGO Mindstorms!  Check out the recent announcement here: Willow Garage recently announced that it designed code to link the popular Lego Mindstorms NXT to the formidable Robot Operating System (ROS) Once a robot is connected to ROS, you can start running applications such as the base controller, wheel odometry, keyboard/joystick teleoperation, and even assisted teleoperation using the ROS navigation stack. The NXT-ROS software stack includes a number of example robot models for users to play with and to get a feel for using NXT with ROS. One part that caught my attention is the use of  LEGO LDD files in ROS’s 3D visualization display. If any of you have tried out this package plea...

SimplySim , a French company specialized on 3D simulation, has used Microsoft's Robotics Studio to create some 3D simulations of the NXT: The NXT simulation package by SimplySim can be downloaded from here .

MCP Philo , well known for a lot of exciting robots, deep insight into the NXT internal electronics and as author of many LDraw parts and of a NXT book (just to name a few things), has published a new fascinating device: a NXT-based 3D scanner . It scans small objects using a needle mounted on a LEGO® linear actuator and reports the data to a computer where they can be used to generate a related 3D CAD model: Intriguing! Note that the scanner has been programmed with pbLua , the NXT programming language based on Lua. A lot of more information can be found on the associated web page .

Hi, when looking at some of the pictures from LEGO(R)'s production line, some people in the NXT STEP forum pointed out that the Billund designers obviously use Autodesk Maya as a 3D design tool for LEGO(R) models. The discussion ensuing there revealed that that product is known as something rather professional but experience with it amongst the forum members is quite limited. How about you? Can somebody from the community provide information here (best in the according forum topic thread , of course)?