Product Description

If you're serious about having fun with LEGO robotics, you've come to the right place. The team behind The NXT STEP blog - the authoritative online source for MINDSTORMS NXT information and advice - has packaged its considerable skills and experience in this book. Inside, you'll find some of the team's best ideas for creating cool and sophisticated models, including instructions for eight robots you can build yourself. Follow along with the MINDSTORMS NXT experts as they explain the fundamentals of programming and design, accompanied by CAD-style drawings and an abundance of screenshots that make it easy for you to master the MINDSTORMS NXT system. You'll get an overview of the NXT parts (beams, sensors, axles, gears, and so on) and clear instructions for combining them to build and program working robots. "The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book" delves into the complexities of the NXT programming language (NXT-G) and offers tips for designing and programming robots, using Bluetooth, creating an NXT remote control, troubleshooting, and much more. Here are just a few of the robots you'll learn to build in The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book: RaSPy, a robot that plays Rock, Scissors, Paper 3D PhotoBot, a robot that will help you take photographs that can be converted into 3D images Slot Machine, complete with flashing lights and a lever ScanBot, a robot that scans black-and-white pictures and displays the images on the NXT's LCD Beach Buggy Chair, a roving, rambling robot CraneBot, a crane-like grabbing robot LEGO fans of all ages will find this book to be an ideal jumping off point for doing more with MINDSTORMS NXT. The only ingredient you need to add is your imagination!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #22400 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 350 pages

About the Author
Martijn Boogaarts was one of the initial organizers of LEGO WORLD. He has built several large demonstration models, including the Road-Plate-Laying-Machine, a working car factory (27 RCXs), and a Pinball machine.

Rob Torok teaches mathematics, information systems, and robotics at Claremont College, a senior secondary school in Tasmania, Australia. Rob is also the Chair of Robotics Tasmania, the organization that conducts the annual RoboCup Junior Tasmania competition for school students

Jonathan A. Daudelin helped form the FIRST LEGO League team, Built On The Rock. In his team's second year of competition, they took first place in the Robot Performance and Innovative Robot categories at the World Festival in the 2007 Nanoquest challenge.

Brian L. Davis has been building LEGO robots for about five years. He competes in conventional events such as sumo, line following, and maze solving, and has created more advanced robots, such as automated forklifts.

Jim Kelly was accepted into the LEGO MINDSTORMS Developer Program (MDP) in early 2006 and helped to beta test the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT kit and software. He is a member of the MINDSTORMS Community Partners, a group that continues to assist LEGO with testing and growing the NXT product.

Lou Morris has headed several software development projects for various technologies, including a treasure-hunting underwater ROV robot, a medical device used to treat cerebral palsy patients, and the roboDNA PC Dashboard Application for the LEGO NXT, iRobot, and PIC microcontroller.

Fay Rhodes is a freelance designer who provides desktop publishing and web design services to nonprofits in the Boston area. She designs NXT robots and is experienced in the use of LEEGO CAD software.

Rick Rhodes is a frequent contributor to The NXT STEP blog. He develops robots that appeal to teenagers like his son.

Matthias Paul Scholz has been an active member of the LEGO MINDSTORMS community since 2000. He is one of the developers of the open source leJOS platform for the RCX. He participated in the LEGO MINDSTORMS Developer Program, and is one of 20 members of the LEGO MINDSTORMS Community Partners Program.

Christopher R. Smith is a Senior Quality Assurance Inspector in the Shuttle Avionics Integration Laboratory (SAIL) at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. He invented an inspection tool recognized by NASA, which honored him with the prestigious Space Act Award.

Customer Reviews

Review of the book Adult valuation of the book.
This book is well written and informative but it has a problem with the grey scale construction photos.
I am adult and have been building lego robots for years but find following the grey scale building diagrams for the more complex robots in the book very very difficult to follow.
There is a web site attached to book with a few coloured photos which do help to corect mistakes in building but its not easy to construct the crane bot even with these.
Good information but badly let down by the quality of the construction photos.