Interfacing Android with LEGO NXT

A guy called Richard has developed and interesting way to write things using an Andriod Phone. This is what he wrote:
Following the same theme as a lot of other recent posts, I have been doing a lot of Android development for my IB Computer Science class. Naturally, I continued to tie Android with the NXT. Initially, Bluetooth was not an option for our outdated G1 development phone*, so I developed this simple solution:

Just a simple solution! For when the situation arises that Bluetooth is not an option, or Arduino board interfacing is not available.

*Fortunately, the Bluetooth API's were back-ported for use on 1.6

Richard

FIRST Promotion video

This is a nice video summarizing the idea behind FIRST. The video features actor Morgan Freeman, FIRST founder Dean Kamen and President Obama.

NXT Swarmbot

There's a project by Carnegie Mellon University Robotics Academy (known as creators of the NXT programming language RobotC): swarm robots that are communicating via the NXTBee hardware by dexter Industries.

In the following video, the NXT robots collaborate to group around a leader robot:

More details can be found on the associated entry in the RobotC blog.

Lego Technic Solar Power walking robot

This post is one on a solar powered robot it uses the solar power to power the motor to make the robot walk.

NXT Tic Tac Toe player

Hi
This is a robot from the book "LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Thinking Robots" by Daniele Benedettelli. More details please visit: http://robotics.benedettelli.com/TRbook.htm
It works very well and as seen in the video is quite intelligent.

NXT Hand Puppet

Very cute and funny :)

GBC#5

This short GBC (or Great Ball Contraption) really caught my attention because of all the cool mechanical solutions and the NXT-Driven robot arm. It's really cool.

(earlier portions of this are here, and are absolutely amazing considering that there is no NXT or electronic intelligence involved. Another great mechanical implementation is here).

Mechnically (and, clearly, in terms of programming) this individual has done an amazing job. But even beyond that, they have a look that inspires.  Here is a user that manages to combine all those facets... and does it really well.

This robot was made by akiyuki.

Lego Liquid Dispenser

Hello,
I was surfing on Youtube looking at some NXT vids and I stumbled upon this NXT liquid dispenser.

Here is a description on how it works:A Lego Mindstorms powered water dispenser. It uses two motors to directly drive he air compressor, and pumps air through the Lego pneumatic rubber tubing into an airtight water container, and water is pushed out from this container through another rubber tubing and exits through a nozzle in the front. The motors are driven whenever the touch sensor is pressed. Features include a push lever, a water container bay, rubber band powered container retainers, a glass pad and more. The NXT run LeJOS and the source code for this program and other programs using different sensors as well as pics can be found here:
http://homebrewcode.blogspot.com/2011/07/mindstorms-liquid-dispenser.html
And a 2.0 version
This one is a little more simple but it shows a different way of using the NXT motor

Enjoy!

3D Printer

Arthur Sacek from Brazil's ZOOM Education for Life, made this very well built and surprisingly precise 3D printing machine is really amazing (and fun to watch)! 
Later he said in a comment reply that he will later show how it works.
He says,  "Soon I will post a "How it works"....and you will see that it is not so hard as you think. I am also a beginner in programming." 

Cake cutting robot

Great looking robot that will cut a cake into as many pieces as you want.  A tin lid acts as the cutter, and some basic math is used to calculate the angle of each piece.


As others have commented, all it needs now is a way to blow out the candles :)

UNIMOG NXTification by Anika

If any of you guys remember Anika she made a  NXTification of  the Technic set UNIMOG.
Here it is!!



Not only is Anika a Mindstorms expert, she is also able to entertain us with very well presented videos featuring stop motion animation story line.  Well done Anika!!

New Cyclops Robot

A new creature is coming! Stay tuned on robotics.benedettelli.com
Can you guess what is it and which amazing capabilities will it feature? 

Mindstorms Academy?

An article in the most recent WIRED magazine got me to thinking about alternative methods (maybe even better?) for delivering training related to both robot building and programming. I was sort-of familiar with Khan Academy (I had watched a video or two a few years ago when someone told me about it) but never truly understood what I was seeing (and hearing) from the website.

If you're not familiar with Khan Academy please pause here and simply read the article and then watch this video. it will get you up to speed much better than I could possibly do so in a paragraph or two. After you've watched the video (or not if you're familiar with KA and its concept), hopefully you'll have an understanding of how the videos work and what the goals of KA are longterm.

I'm not here to debate the pros or cons of KA -- the site and its methodology are the subject of much debate already so let's not add to the noise here... my purpose for this post is not to discuss KA's videos but to pose a question to LEgoBOTS's audience as a whole:

Would it be possible to provide to those new to Mindstorms(teachers, students, parents) a collection of short videos (5 to 10 minutes max) that would introduce concepts such as The Loop block, Line Following and Object Detection?

Just as KA has a couple dozen categories (Pre-Algebra, Calculus, Economics, etc.), I can imagine a similar group of categories such as Programming Blocks and Basic Movements and Advanced Logic Control... the list goes on. The idea would be to create a standard format for how the videos look and how they are narrated... maybe even some standards on video format thrown in for consistency.

Just as many students who use the KA videos can go back over a difficult topic as many times as they like (without anyone looking over his/her shoulder) and review the content before moving on, I can imagine a similar set of videos being developed where relationships between videos are tagged so that novices don't watch a more advanced video before they've watched (and hopefully learned) the basic videos that contain the information the more technical subjects build upon.

Don't get me wrong -- I still think books are a great method for learning. But imagine rather than reading a page or two that describes how to drop in a MOVE block and tweak it for the various settings -- forward, reverse, power, coast, etc. -- that you can instead queue up a video that maybe shows the block being dragged onto the work area, a few tweaks made on the left side of the screen and a Tribot or other robot on the right side demonstrating the code in action. I also think there's something a bit more personal in having a narrator explain a concept, but probably not everyone will agree.

Let's assume for a second that the video concept is favorable and enough people voice support. What next? I'm not a project manager, but I imagine that there would need to be some sort of formalized method for managing the videos -- this would likely need to be an individual or small group that would be responsible for not only assigning video topics but also viewing and critiquing them before they are released in the wild. (Of course, a "beta" video could also be released for feedback from the community.)

There are other matters that would need to be considered and decided on:

1. How would video of the NXT software be recorded?
2. Would the video capture software need to be consistent or could a list of acceptable applications be selected?
3. What language would the video narrator need to speak? I dislike assuming English, but then again this is an English-based blog and the majority of the audience are English-speakers.
4. Where would the videos be stored/hosted?

There may also be copyright/legal issues that I'm likely unfamiliar with, but given the purpose of these videos would be to promote Mindstorms and grow its user base, I would hope that there would be ways around these issues, especially if the goal isn't profit-minded.

There are thousands upon thousands of videos out there that show viewers how to solder, how to wire up all kinds of electronics, how to program in dozens of languages, and so many more. And yes, there are already videos out there that demo how to do various things with the NXT kit and its software, but what's lacking is organization and logical planning of the topics to be covered.

I'm very impressed with Khan Academy, and I can't help but think that the methodology he uses is perfectly suited for teaching Mindstorms.

Thoughts?

Another NXTification of the Star Wars Shuttle!!

Remember the NXTification of the LEGO® Star Wars Shuttle by bazmarc we posted a month ago here?
Here's another one, this time by another well-known NXT hero, NeXTSTORM: