ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

Fan created logo designed by Marina Stamboli, Greece In honor of LEGO® MINDSTORMS 20th ANNIVERSARY the LEGO HOUSE in Billund, Denmark held an exhibition from Sept 1st to 16th 2018. Of course there was also the traditional celebration cake for all the employees that have been involved with MINDSTORMS throughout the years.  #MINDSTORMS20 Celebration cake, Billund, Denmark The large MINDSTORMS family The exhibit featuring 20 years of creations from fan around the world In September 2018, LEGO® MINDSTORMS celebrates it’s 20th anniversary. The journey began in September 1998. That year, the LEGO MINDSTORMS RCX Robotics Invention System was launched after nearly a decade of collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop an “intelligent brick” that would bring LEGO creations to life via computer programming, motors, and sensors. The late Seymour Papert developed the ideas behind the “intelligent brick”. Together with MIT’s Medi...

 The long wait is finally over - at last - the building instructions for all 4 amazing robot remix from this summer's MCP RobotRemix#1 challenge! Again, all of these great models can be build using only parts from the LEGO MINDSTORMS (31313) set and the LEGO TECHNIC Fire plane (42040). A big thank you goes to Robin, the creator of Lucky Cat who took the time to make these professional looking building instructions for you all! Yoshihito Isogawa - HELICOPT3R Download the HELICOPT3R building instructions here: http://robotsquare.com/ downloads/robotremix/31313- 42040/helicopt3r_V1.2.pdf  EV3 Project program files can be found here: http://robotsquare.com/ downloads/robotremix/31313- 42040/HELICOPT3R.ev3 See the post about Yoshihito's remix here: http://www.thenxtstep.com/2015/08/robot-remix-1-exhibit-helicopt3r.html Arthur Sacek - DANC3R   Download the DANC3R building instructions here: http://robotsquare.com/ downloads/robotre...

Exhibit D: VLK-EV3 by Xander Soldaat, The Netherlands  For the last remix of RobotRemix#1, Xander tells us a bit more about the challenges faced with the execution of his idea; The VLK-EV3 (formerly know as Valkyrie) I am Xander, from The Netherlands. I am a senior software engineer for Robomatter and have been an MCP for about 6 years. My design proposal, a Valkyrie inspired robot, proved much harder to implement than I had originally anticipated. Without the help from Laurens Valk and Damien Kee, this robot would have been no more than a heaping pile of disappointment. Initially, it was designed it with the brick in the plane part. This worked fine until I started adding things like a head and wings. The small motor struggled quite a bit but really ground to a halt when I replaced the lighter battery pack with 6xAA batteries. I had almost given up, when, during an unrelated conversation with Damien, the failed project was mentioned. He suggested putting the br...

Exhibit C: LUCKY CAT by Robin Dai, China For this post,  learn a little bit more about Robin thanks to his fun self introductory text: Hi, This is Robin, from Shanghai, China. You may already notice my older face. Yes, I’m 56 and have been serving in Shanghai Police for more than 30 years. Fortunately, I still have chance to spend my leisure on exploring the amazing Lego cosmos for recent 10 years. I am so honor to be a member of MCP15. And as a lucky participant, the first thing I want to share with you all is that the Robot Remix is such a smart and exciting idea. I have been gladly struggling in utilizing and combining two sets as much as I can for several weeks. We have an idiom in China, saying "To throw a brick for a jade back" It's quite similar with your English one is "To throw out a minnow to catch a whale". Hope you like my creation and will have a whale of a time at your own remix exploration. 31313 + 42040 = LUCKY CAT Here are som...

Exhibit B: DANC3R by Arthur Sacek, Brazil Arthur Sacek is a product designer and lives in São Paulo, Brazil. Since 2001 he has been developing LEGO models and educational programs for Brazilian schools. He also have a technology school, where he supports kids to create their own inventions. Arthur is member of the MINDSTORMS Community Partner (MCP) group in which was held the first ROBOT REMIX challenge. Arthur successfully remixed it into a robot dancer. 31313 + 42040 = DANC3R Here are some pictures showing the engineering details of this build and proof of concept. Arthur wowed us all with his preliminary sketches Front view of DANC3R Rear view of DANC3R Hope you enjoyed this ROBOT REMIX, please feel free to comment and share this project.  To see more of Arthur’s work, visit https://www.youtube.com/user/arthursacek   Learn all about the ROBOT REMIX #1 in the story posted earlier this week.  Sta...

PRIZE LEGO® MINDSTORMS® Challenge. The competition, which aims to promote science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, challenges teams of students ages 9 to 17 to design, program and build robots that simulate lunar missions mirroring the $30M Google Lunar XPRIZE, an international competition for privately funded teams to build a rover to land on and explore the Moon’s surface. The Grand Prize Winner and Runner-Ups are: Grand Prize Winner: Team The Incredibots (Columbus, Ohio) First Runner-Up: Team Dalton BRobots (Barcelona, Spain) Second Runner-Up: Team Dutch Delta (Rotterdam, Netherlands) Third Runner-Up: Team Starling (Ballwin, Mo.) Third Runner-Up: Team Electric Dreams (Erie, Pa.) For the full list of finalists, visit http://moonbots.org/teams . The Grand Prize Winner will receive a trip to the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) at the University of Hawaii at Hilo to test out their robot on the slope...

Laurens Valk made an extra bonus model that Sort LEGO bricks by color and size, for those who have the book. By finding the right program name in the book, you can enter a special section of the acompaning website . The program and building instructions are in the same high quality as the book and in full color.

Meet Avery Dean, a wiz kid with great sense of humor and some pretty awesome skills. He used parts from his LEGO collection and his MINDSTORMS EV3 set to create this elaborate school project. Sit back and relax as he explain his amazing creation the "Castle of Mysteries" EV3RYTHING IS AW3SOME in this video ;) : . .

Every now and then you come across an idea build with MINDSTORMS that is just amazing. Check out this self building system designed by Andreas Håkansson from Sweden, just feed it decks and watch it rise all the way... to space. Just imagine the modules are made from Carbon Nano Tubes and it might actually work... as explained in this video: Meanwhile, who can write the formula of how long it would take for this robot to build up to a given height? : . .

MINDSENSORS created a new sensor for the use with the EV3- home and EV3-education software, On their webpage they state the following: This is an array of 8 sensors with controlled light source, returning you values of the sensor readings. Your program can then decide if you wish to follow line with it or do something else. Easy to mount on your NXT or EV3 robot facing ground Reporting dark and light pattern from array of 8 sensors Detect and follow a line Write line follower programs with your own decision making Develop your own PID control algorithms or use built in PID control You can download a sample program and driver blocks for various languages. Enjoy following the line at high speeds! mb

Do you have what it takes to put a robot on the Moon? Can you answer ' Why We Should Go Back to the Moon for Good? ' Do you want to win a trip to Hawaii and other great prizes? Then register a team and get going! Reed the rules and keep an eye on the FAQ page , as that will help you to win. Do you want to see more about the Google Lunar Xprize .

Facebook EV3 group member Pi Ksar has shared with us a pretty neat robot arm made out of LEGO MINDSTORMS - I asked him a little bit about himself and describe his project: Hi, I’m Pawel, 37 married, from Poland background : electrical engineer work : global consultant – 270 days per year in travel hobby : modern technologies, history, traveling   Always dreaming about having own Kuka style robot. Because of flat space I cannot buy real one. So decision about building my own was made. Why Lego ? Because it’s flexible system and many spare parts available. First attempt was 2 years ago with NXT 2.0 but without luck – I need at least 6 motors to be controlled. So waiting for EV3... ...When EV3 appeared – bought a few sets. Now available at my workshop : -        4xEV3 unit, 16 servo motors, 8 touch sensors, Gyro, more sensors from sets -        Lego Technic : Unimog, 4x4 RC, large buldoger and few ...

EV3 Facebook group member Cyrus Cuenca shares with us his version of AlphaRex made using the EV3 Home Edition set #31313 and he called it very appropriately AlphaR3X! Below is a link to his blog where you can see  pictures and download partial Building Instructions he made using LEGO Digital Designer.    http://theteenagemaker.blogspot.ca/2014/02/alpha-r3x.html : . .

David Gilday, did it again ! A one box cube solver, this time made with the EV3 retail box (31313). for those who want to build the next challenge this is a wonderful model, I had the NXT 2.0 version and was already impressed by that one, but now hold your horses, as this new EV3 model is super fast! it solved complex scrambles in about 98 seconds! For those who want to test, be prepared that although David did a great job, some of the code is and some of the code isn't created with the graphical LEGO EV3-G language and thus the solver code need to be downloaded separately. He did a great job in creating a 115 page building instruction manual (in PDF format). David worked hard on explaining all on his website , and if you want to know more or show your own created version, follow him on the Mindcuber FaceBook site . Enjoy the great 31313, MindCub3r, as a great x-mass present

This is a work in progress of a very stable version by Laurens Valk. Based on his earlier work, the anyway and the segway for Aplha-Rex2. See also more information here and here . The education version made by Lee and with software from Danielle. The building instructions are available here , but the code is still part of the paid EV3 education version, and I can not just disclose it , (unfortunately). More information about the education software here And this is a special Java version, with tux as their model, more information here .

Recently the first MINDSTORMS books hit the shelfs, some are written for the Educations ( 45544 ) set and some are for the Retail ( 31313 ) set. It is important to pick the right book, or else you end up with a good book about the EV3, but you cannot recreate any of the models inside. A book by Daniele Benedettelli the creator of guitar bonus model. He is an expert on MINDSTORMS and as MCP he was closely involved in the development process of the EV3. The book starts with explaining the 31313 set details and how to build some good structures. Then with the help of a comic you are guided into the new features of the set, like the IR control, and on-brick programing. in the end you build some amazing robots, and the code how to run your models is nicely explained in the book. It is in Black white, and sometimes this is a bit harder to follow the building instructions, but let not lead you there, this is the BEST EV3 31313 book out now! Here or here is a link if you want one! Bu...

The LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 robotics platform has been developed for two different target audiences. There are home users (children and hobbyists) and educational users (students and teachers). LEGO has designed a base set for each group, but what are the differences between these two? There isn’t a clear line between home users and educational users, though. It’s fine to use the Education Core Set at home, and it’s fine to use the Home Edition set at school. This article at Robot Square aims to clarify the differences between the two product lines so you can decide which product works best for you. The article covers the main differences between the LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3 Home Edition (#31313) and LEGO MINDSTORMS Education EV3 Core Set (#45544), as well as other subtle differences you should be aware of when choosing one of these sets.

In his blog , Lauro Ojeda describes how to program the EV3 using C++. In particular, he focuses on mobile robot navigation, developing software that allows a differential drive robot to keep a precise estimation of its pose using the Rotation Sensors embedded in the motors and a gyroscope.  He has released the Robot Navigation software, that allows developing mobile robot applications of different levels of complexity. The current version supports robots based on the the Lego Mindstorms EV3. The web site includes instructions for how to compile and use it in Windows and Linux. In the video, you can see a demo application. Using the arrows on the computer keyboard, the user drives the robot around, and then requests the robot to return to the home position.

Here's a pretty well done 43 minutes overview video on LEGO® MINDSTORMS EV3 , produced by New Planet School :

Recently I got this question a lot: " Can I use my NXT as a Bluetooth remote for the EV3 brick? " The answer is: "Technically it should be possible, practical with the standard firmware not." The main reason for this is that the firmware software developer of the EV3 never thought of making the code backwards compatible as with all the other LEGO bricks is a mandatory giving in order to pass the quality check, so now it is up to the community to start and think about it to make it work. One of the first tries is here from Hans Odenthal at Sioux.NET a group of software developers form the Eindhoven based country that do like MINDSTORMS as their after hours projects. As Hans Explains: The mailbox mechanism is different for the two bricks, the PC application is therefor needed to convert the messages from the NXT format to the EV3 format. By this means, you can send messages (e.g. if you press a button at the NXT) to the EV3 (e.g. to control a motor). A simp...