This insane creation, entirely made out of LEGO, came to us via our forum. Not satisfied with making a single pick-and-place delta robot, Shep built four of them and put them above a conveyor belt and made them sort colored blocks.
The video shows how the four robots sort the blocks quite rapidly and precisely. See a detailed write-up of the project at Shep’s Blog, Tinkernology. This amazing construction was inspired by an equally amazing delta robot by ABB, the Flexpicker. See the Flexpicker in action below (its insane speed makes up for the fact it is not made out of LEGO).
For all of those wanting to have a robot floor cleaner such as the Mint but not being able to afford such a luxury, there is always the choice of doing it yourself…with LEGO! Pulito, was built following precisely this spirit.
The video below shows the robot navigating and cleaning around the house. It uses Swiffer pads to clean.
Pulito is even able to dock like a commercial cleaning robot as shown below.
If you want be able to design, build and program complex autonomous robots but have limited experience and don’t know where to start, LEGO Mindstorms is perfect for you!
LEGO has developed one of the most intuitive, easy to use programming software on the market today. Gone are the nuances and painstaking time to debug and check your code, replaced with a visual interface, similar to a LEGO modular brick structure.
Versatile LEGO TECHNIC elements
LEGO has expanded its range of classic bricks to include gears and complex parts to let your imagination run wild. This can always be mixed with standard LEGO bricks.
State-of-the-art sensors and servo motors
Even the basic kit includes complex sensors which will allow your students to create complex autonomous robots.
Easy to use “drag and drop” programming software
Worried about complex programming? LEGO Mindstorms comes with an intuitive drag and drop user interface which allows your students to easily program the robot.
All of these connect to the NXT Intelligent brick
The NXT microcontroller is the brain of any MINDSTORMS® robot. It’s an intelligent, computer-controlled LEGO® brick that lets a MINDSTORMS robot come alive and perform different operations.
The NXT is an intelligent, computer-controlled LEGO brick and is the heart of any LEGO MINDSTORMS autonomous robot
The touch sensor enables the robot to feel and react to its environment
The sound sensor enables the robot to hear and react to sound
The light sensor allows the robot to detect light and colour
The ultrasonic sensor gives your robot the ability to see, measure distance and react to movement
The servo motors , which can be used for partial angle or continuous rotation, ensure your robot moves with precision.
The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT software enables you to program your NXT robotic invention and upload your programs to the NXT via USB or Bluetooth connectivity. The intuitive Mac and PC compatible drag and drop software, powered by National Instruments LabVIEW, comes with building instructions and programming guides to easily begin constructing and programming with MINDSTORMS NXT.
LEGO MINDSTORMS is a modular design system that allows you to creat almost any kind of robot.
LEGO provides detailed instructions as to how to build a variety of different robots. There are step by step graphical instructions to guide you through the building process.
What type of robots can you do?
Spike:
Spike reacts like a real-life Scorpion. It craws on six legs, has a set of pincer arms (pedipalps), can see and hear with ultrasonic and sound sensors, and can quickly “paralyze” its prey with a touch-sensor enabled stinger!
This simple program allows the Scorpion to move forward to a target, play a sound when it hits the target with its stinger, retract the tail again and go back to its starting point.
RoboArm T-56:
RoboArm T-56 is a sophisticated robotic arm that can lift, pivot, and grab objects with its claws. It can detect colors with its Light Sensor and feel objects with its Touch Sensor . Three Motors power RoboArm T-56 – 1 motor powers the grabber claws and 2 motors enable the robotic arm to move up, down, and turn!
This simple program gives RoboArm T-56 the intelligence to distinguish between a red or blue ball with its light sensor. It grabs and moves the red ball, but rejects and releases the blue one when grabbed.
TriBot:
TriBot is a flexible and fast 3-wheeled driving robot! It takes advantage of all four sensors to do the job you program it to do. TriBot can grab a ball when you give it a sound command (through its Sound Sensor ), can be programmed to follow a line with its Light Sensor , can feel objects with its Touch Sensor , and can see with its Ultrasonic Sensor.
This simple program enables TriBot to power 1 motor when the light sensor detects dark, and a second motor when the light sensor detects light. Use this program to have TriBot follow a line, modify it, or create one of your own!
Alpha Rex:
Alpha Rex performs tasks that only the most sophisticated robots can do… Walk on two legs like a real person! With built in rotation sensors on the two Servo Motors powering his legs, and an Ultrasonic Sensor enabling Alpha Rex to see, you can program Alpha Rex to go where you want with precision!
This simple program makes use of simultaneous tasks on two Sequence Beams. Alpha Rex’s heart beats on one task, while his legs are powered to move on the other.
The possibilities that this enables are almost endless. Especially when considering that now Arduino Shields can be used in order to extend the capabilities of the Lego NXT parts.
As we say goodbye to the 200x’s and welcome the 201x’s it’s good to pause a bit and think about the world as it was ten years ago. There was no Wikipedia, no YouTube, internet access was still dialup for a huge portion of the population, and we didn’t have a whole heap of really cool robots. To highlight some of the great inventions of the past ten years, we’ve selected 10 of the best robots fom the past 10 years.
With any sort of list like this, things are pretty arbitrary, but we tried to pick robots that have made an impact in our culture or have impacted the hobby or science of robots in a major way. Below you’ll find 10 amazing robots from the military, toy industry, consumer industry, and science community that have had a lasting impact on robotics.
Take a look and tell us what you think. If you had to nominate 10 robots of the decade, who would they be? Keep reading for our picks for robots of the decade.
The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT software enables you to program your NXT robotic invention and upload your programs to the NXT via USB or Bluetooth connectivity. The intuitive Mac and PC compatible drag and drop software, powered by National Instruments LabVIEW, comes with building instructions and programming guides to easily begin constructing and programming with MINDSTORMS NXT.
Alpha Rex performs tasks that only the most sophisticated robots can do… Walk on two legs like a real person! With built in rotation sensors on the two Servo Motors powering his legs, and an Ultrasonic Sensor enabling Alpha Rex to see, you can program Alpha Rex to go where you want with precision!
