HiTechnic sensors

If any of you are interested I will post some of the new sensors that they make.
(But I don't really use them)

WALL-E 5

On the MINDSTORMS website under "news" a new robot story is posted as it is told by Marc-André Bazergui & team about "Making a Robotic Model of a Robot".

Now, this version 5 transforms from a cube shape to a fully articulated well proportioned look alike of the famous Disney/Pixar WALL-E®. The first public appearance of this robot was at BrickWORLD Chicago, 2011.

read the full story here 

NXShield - a shield for TEEMINO

Maybe this could not seem directly LEGO MINDSTORMS related, or evenblasphemous to the purists, but the secret Android device published in a previous post is not a secret anymore!
Its name is Teemino, a device that can be controlled by an Android ADK compatible phone.
This means that your Android version should be 3.1 or 2.3.4 to have the Open Accessory support.

Soon also the NXShield will be available: it will allow the Teemino to control up to 4 NXT Servo Motors and read 4 digital and analogic sensors.
Here's a video to see it in action (impatient people should skip to 5:20)

NXTBee - NXT-G Blocks

Andy over at Milluzzi Labs - http://08milluz.wordpress.com/ has just released some NXT-G blocks for use with the Dexter Industries NXTBee sensors.

Not sure what the NXTBee is? Basically it's Wireless communication for the NXT!

• Fast, long distance wireless communications for the NXT.

• Communicate Far: Send data over 1 KM away.

• Communicate Fast: High speed communication between NXT's and other devices.

• Communicate Wide: Talk to multiple NXTs, other devices and robots.

Soooooooo... What can you do with an NXTBee?  Here is a  quick video of what some people have managed.  What would you do?

Robot Sundae Maker

The good people over at Tufts University (the home of the RoboLab software) have created a nifty Robotic sundae maker as part of their summer intern project.








More info on the trials and tribulations to make it happen can be found at their website
http://sites.tufts.edu/robosundae/

It also has a great collection of photos documenting the process.

Review of Technic Unimog 8110

Conchas at TechnicBricks has posted an excellent review of the new LEGO TECHNIC 8110 Unimog. It's the largest set in TECHNIC history. Find the review with plenty of pictures and videos here.

The Unimog itself looks like a great model with lots of functions. And once you're done playing with the main model, it seems this set will be a very useful parts pack for your NXT robots, like making it completely autonomous or making the scoop at the back to detect objects and scoop it up....... 

Brickworld 2011 - postscript

The definition of a good LEGO convention is one with amazing MOCs, great events & contests, fun friendly people, and innovative ideas at every turn.

The definition of a great LEGO convention is all the above, with a lot less sleep.

Brickworld 2011 has come and gone, and Brian Davis wasn't able to blog from the event, because to be honest he said,  there was just too many other interesting things going on. There was a huge model of The Love Boat (with hidden scenes from other movies... like Jaws, Snakes on a Plane, and The Poseidon Adventure), Shep's amazing Flex-Picker, many other amazing constructions large and small... and, of course, robots.

They had Monster Chess there again, as well as a preview of a future project, a LEGO robot based version of RoboRally(even bigger than Monster Chess). The NXT-based Space Shuttle was there, robots like PackBot (kids played with it all day long), a huge number of sumo robots (around 70+... they had a multi-hour teach-in for people new to it), a bunch of entries for a "Build-On-The-Spot" (B.O.T.S.) challenge, and boat races again. I've got a bunch of pictures Brian need to get up, but so far Brian's only put together one video, a collection of clips of the LEGO boat race (including underwater)