ROBOTMAK3RS Blog

There's a new boxer in town named Balboa... and he's one mean hi-tech boxing robot!!! I wonder if Muhammad Ali, NeXTSTORM 's little one-kit boxing robot, would win in a match against Balboa? What do you think? MySnailEatsPizza did a real fine job with this one!! I really like his little red gloves ;)  : . .  

I have posted an NXT 1.0 version of the NXT Segway with Rider project (see previous blog entry on the NXT 2.0 version ). This version uses the standard light sensor instead of the color sensor, the taller balloon tires, and the NXT-G 1.x software (tuned for the 1.05 firmware). Although the control program runs significantly slower than the 2.0 version (the newer 2.0 software and firmware has reduced the overhead of the sensor and motor blocks considerably), the 1.x version fortunately is able to make up for it by using the light sensor's "Raw" output (not available on the 2.0 color sensor), which has much higher resolution, which makes it easier for the robot to maintain an accurate on-center position, despite the slower sampling rate. So the best NXT-G configuration for this sort of task (or similar, think line following...) would actually be the NXT 2.0 software and 1.28 firmware but using the old light sensor in Raw mode, so you would get both the high speed and the ...

I have updated the original NXT 1.0 Line Follower project at nxtprograms.com to improve the original programs a bit and include a new "proportional" line following program. I also included some separate light sensor calibration utility programs and some discussion of light sensor calibration, as calibration can be a somewhat confusing concept in practice (although it can simplify your programs and/or make your robot more flexible once you understand how to use it). Comparing this to my new NXT 2.0 Line Follower , with essentially the same program, I notice that it doesn't perform as well. I think this is for two reasons: NXT 2.0 programs execute faster than 1.x, and my older 1.x robot design is inferior. In particular, I think the light sensor is too far ahead of the wheels. Making the wheel track (left-to-right) wider would probably also help. Give a try at making it better!

For any FLL teams using the NXT 2.0 kit, note that the color sensor is not allowed in the FLL competition. The FLL rules allows for up to 2 "Light Sensors", and this refers to only the original NXT light sensor or the older RCX light sensor. The Color Sensor is not allowed, even if you only use it in "Light Sensor" mode. I verified this with FLL to be sure, and they confirmed. So if you have the NXT 2.0 kit, you can buy the original NXT light sensors separately from LEGO Retail or from LEGO Education .

This is the parts list inventory of the new set. Notice that the set also includes 4 wheels with tyres, even though the latter parts are not used in any of the set models. The box includes more smaller beams than the old set, and the amount of length-15 beams is reduced to 2. However, you get a lot of other useful beams in return. Apart from new parts, some of the older parts have a different color. Here's a more detailed picture of the back side of the box. Two new features of the software are shown here: Remote control (USB or BlueTooth) and the possibility to create custom sounds and image files for the NXT. The box also promises 10 models with downloadable building instructions from mindstorms.com upon the set's release. Two of the models are shown here. One of them is a six legged Mantis, and the other one is a cool transforming robot. This image is not very new, but it shows the color sensor functionality, with three separate functions: - It can be used in Color Sensor Mo...

This NXT Peg Sorter will sort long black NXT pegs from long gray pegs, into two separate bins. A conveyor feeds pegs down in a chute, then the light sensor is used to see the color of the peg as it is sliding down the chute, then a hitting arm hits the black pegs to the side while allowing gray pegs to fall straight down into the other side. Here is a video of the machine in action: There are simpler and more reliable ways to sort pegs, but with this project I wanted to do something similar to the way some modern high speed mechanical sorters work in factories. In some of these machines, the items are thrown quickly past a gap in the conveyor belt, where an optical sensor looks for rejects, and then air jets are used to knock the rejected items down through the gap into a reject bin, while the good items continue past the gap to the other side. The challenges are to quickly detect a reject and then to get the right timing between seeing the reject and pushing it out of the fast movin...