gmane.comp.hardware.lego.robotics

MinuteBot Base

Jetro de Chateau — 2012-05-14T19:23:24

There is a great project for creating a technic/MINDSTORMS baseplate on
Kickstarter that could be a great classroom or hobbydesk testbase as well as
provide a sturdy base (or side) for many Robotics projects.

Have a look at the <http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/37801615/minutebot-base
MinuteBot Base website> to see what it is all about.

<<http://i1206.photobucket.com/albums/bb442/SEQINETIC/MinuteBot/MinuteBase_partview2.png>>

Question about NXT rechargeable battery

Frances Schroeter — 2012-05-14T10:09:47

I bought a rechargeable battery for my NXT and was very happy with it.
However, I have ended up not using the NXT for some months and the rechargeable
battery was left in the NXT.
This weekend, I went to recharge the battery, it has been on the charger for two
days now and the battery is still flat. The green light comes on on the battery
indicating that it is charging. 
Any ideas what the problem is, and what I can do to get the battery to recharge?

Raspberry Pi and Berry Box The Transparent Case

Jeff Findley — 2012-04-12T12:26:26

Hi all.  I don't know how many people around here have heard of the Raspberry
Pi, but I saw that someone is working on a Lego compatible case for it.  The
Raspberry Pi is a computer on a chip that is really cheap.  This would seem to
be an inexpensive way to add a lot more computing power to a Lego robotics
project.  

Raspberry Pi:  
http://www.raspberrypi.org/

Berry Box - Discussion: 
http://www.raspberrypi.org/forum/projects-and-collaboration-general/berry-box-the-transparent-case/

Berry Box - WeFund:
http://www.wefund.com/project/berry-box

LEGO arm and hand

Jordan Bradford — 2012-02-23T22:15:21

Check out this life-size LEGO arm and hand. It's pretty amazing.

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1669072/watch-a-working-robot-hand-made-from-legos

KURUKSHETRA!!!!!

hasini — 2012-01-22T10:59:42

The first UNESCO-certified festival in the country, Kurukshetra of College of
Engineering, Guindy, Anna University, is to be held from February 1 to 4,
2012. Epitomizing its very tagline, “the battle of the brains”, Kurukshetra
has been the culmination of unmatched excellence and it aims to identify the
best talents across various countries. Do you think you have the talent?
Then what are you waiting for? Come, compete and conquer!!!
 Events Galore at Kurukshetra 2012:
OPC
Debugging
K!Millionaire
Chaos Theory
Poseidron
Math Modelling
Cerebra
Peepli Live
Electrowarriors
Aero Modelling
K!Idol
Alcatraz
Innovate
Fox Hunt
Rumble in the Junk
Robowars
And many more, check out http://krk.org.in/1event for details!!!
 
Workshops < at > Kurukshetra 2012
Scalable Vector Graphics
Learn Organize Lead
Auto Anatomy
Caricature
Astrophotography
Autobotics
Self-balancing bots
For further details, Visit http://krk.org.in/1wrps
 
Guest Lectures
Want to hear the “Father of Wifi” Vic Hayes talk on “Innovation Journey of
Wifi” or entrall yourself by ISRO scientist Veeraraghavan’s  “Autonomous
Access to Space – Opportunities and Challenges”. Join us at College of
Engineering, Guindy or subscribe via Virtual Participation to be part of
this unique experience!!
Find the other stalwart speakers by logging into http://krk.org.in/1gl

Fest date:Feb 1-4,2012
Website: http://krk.org.in/khome

Autobotics

hasini — 2012-01-15T15:35:02


This is a robotics workshop and deals with the design, calibration of a
line-tracer robot. It also meets the following specification match:  wall
tracing, line tracing and edge detection. (It’s basically a lower end
robotics workshop when compared to Self-Balancing Robot.). The workshop is
done by a partnering group called MBS Group.
The link of Autobotics is as follows:
http://krk.org.in/1autobot

Self-Balancing Bot

hasini — 2012-01-15T15:34:17

 The most advanced automatic locomotive robot (2 wheeled self balancing
electric machine) that operates with a high precision sensor called the
‘Gyroscope’. It involves in design, construction, programming, demo of the
Self-balancing Robot followed by hands-on. As it’s the 1st of its kind in
history of k! The link of Self-Balancing Robot is as follows:
http://krk.org.in/1selfbots

K!onstructor

anupamakannan — 2011-12-20T15:39:43

K!onstructor-Kurukshetra 2012, CEG

Tired of playing the same boring video games?
Well, here is a live one with sweeeett prize money! 
For the first time in Kurukshetra, the techno-management fest of College of
Engineering, Guindy, Anna University, we introduce a semi-autonomous robotic
event.
The manual bot has to pick and place objects on the autonomous bot which
will trace the path to the deposit point.
Main criteria for judging: Ingenuity and Creativity.

Deadline:January 15th 2012
For more details follow the below link :
http://kurukshetra.org.in/2012/#!/Events/Robotics/Konstructor.k

ANGRY BOTS!!

hasini — 2011-12-20T12:46:26

Hey all!

Tired of playing the video games on your phones or tablets?
When G-one could get a chance to live, the Angry Birds deserve one too!

We here at Kurukshetra give mechanical life to these best selling creatures
to pump the same gaming adrenaline in a robotics event.

Be a part of the first EVER robotic version of Angry Birds !

Total Prize money :  INR 35,000

Learn more < at > http://kurukshetra.org.in/2012/#!/Events/Robotics/Angry-Bots.k

DESIGNER'S QUEST!!

hasini — 2011-12-20T12:45:48


Designer’s Quest is the robotic event of Kurukshetra, CEG, Anna
University.This is a one of a kind robotics event for the those who dare to
be  creators.
'Designer's Quest' is not about heated confrontations between bots. Not many
rigorous requirements for you to fulfil.Here  innovation and aesthetics take
the upper hand. Enjoy the ride and let your creativity run wild! Come up
with your own design and indulge your fantasies. See your creation come
ALIVE....!!!The final destination awaits the fittest in mind.
"Innovation distinguishes a leader from a follower"
                                                                     -Steve
Jobs
Which one are you?
 
Total Prize money    :  INR 30,000
Deadline:  5th JAN 2012

Problem Statements are up!!!!!!!!!!

For further details
visit:http://kurukshetra.org.in/2012/#!/Events/Robotics/DQ.k

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tags:
if the site asks for tags.. Use these keywords
Robotics, Kurukshetra, CEG, Anna University, Designer’s Quest, Events

SMART's BrickCon Display

David Schilling — 2011-10-12T01:07:11

I want to thank everyone who participated in this year's SMART display at
BrickCon. It was absolutely amazing! We couldn't have done it without everyone's
help. Every element was crucial, and worked amazingly! Named "BallMageddon"
because either it was going to be a catastrophic failure, or a spectacular
exhibit that everyone who saw it would remember for a LONG time! I'm very
pleased to say it was the latter!

Here's who contributed:

Gus designed the display and an amazing 'wave' that carried the balls in front
of the display.

Kyle built the final lift that brought the balls into the display, as well as
the sorter that took the balls coming out of the display, and returned them to
their proper bins.

Andrew built the "rainbow stairs", one of the two most commented on parts of the
display, which took the balls coming out of the display and gave them their
initial lift to get them rolling towards their destination.

Sean built a wonderful ball escalator that took the balls from near ground-level
and got them all the way to the top of the bins where they got sorted by Kyle's
sorter.

Of course the wonderful and beautiful hoppers built by Dan were essential. I'm
not sure how many versions he built before creating one that wouldn't jam. Now
he understands the many ways that balls will form voids when you try to pull one
out of a pile. I'm not sure that he entirely believed us when he volunteered to
build the hoppers. Also worth mentioning here is Doug's interesting pattern to
stretch bricks to allow such large bins to be built with a limited supply of
parts. And equally important was Alex's contribution of building pushers to get
the balls onto the conveyors! Thanks to this vital improvement, we didn't have
to stir the balls constantly to make sure that we had the constant supply of
balls we needed!

I built the display generator, and want to thank Craig for the suggestion of
rejecting balls by default.

Craig built one of the other much-commented on part of the display: a wonderful
rotating loop that lifted balls. He took the advice that the public loves to see
interesting motion, and that the most interesting part of the display is the
motion the balls go through to get to the display, which only provided a
rationale to the balls movement.

Craig also built a wonderful arm that took the rejected balls and returned them
to be sorted. Unfortunately we couldn't get this working on Saturday, as there
were so many other problems that needed to be solved first, but Craig got the
arm working very quickly on Sunday, and it worked like a charm!

One part of the display that didn't officially make it into the display proper
was Mark's balancing, ball-carrying robots. Originally the intent was that these
robots would carry the reject balls from the display generator back to the
sorter (a role that was taken over by Craig's arm). But Mark wisely recommended
that with two extremely complex and error in-tolerant displays, it was better to
separate them and get them working independantly. At some later date we can
combine them. In any case, Mark DID get his balancing robot display working, and
it was equally interesting to watch! I look forward to seeing how this part of
the display evolves in the future.

With a display like BallMageddon, the balls need to be 100% reliable on their
path from the generator to the display board. One lost ball will shift the
entire display, and just two lost balls will result in an incomprehensible mess.

So I want to provide a final and very heartfelt THANK YOU! to Gus for all the
debugging in getting the display working reliably over the weekend. It started
off requiring constant human help to continue working. By early Sunday, though,
it would run for hundreds of balls without any error at all.

Thanks again, to everyone who participated, and all your wonderful devices! I've
thrown together two videos of our display. Please check them out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jeioJzvNe8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITt-zFTKFXI

--
  David Schilling

Cavern exploration robot

Claude Baumann — 2011-10-11T09:13:31

Hi all,

those who would like to follow our new project, please go to

www.convict.lu/Jeunes/RoboticsIntro.htm and follow the "Casemates project blog".

The idea is to design and program a robot that can navigate through the
casemates, which are sorts of caverns beneath the city of Luxembourg, left
behind by old military occupants (French -Vauban 17th century-, for instance).
As our boarding institution is built upon an old vestige of a fortress, we still
have an access to some casemates that have never been explored. In this project,
we will combine metallic Tetrix and LEGO Mindstorms parts, as a very robust
construction is needed to overcome the difficult topography. (Note that Tetrix
robots may be Mindstorms-controlled and is compatible with the geometry of the
LEGO parts.) 

http://www.tetrixrobotics.com/
http://news.legoeducation.us/Newsroom/Item.aspx?art=2752

(Also note that the blog is entitled "Boulette Institute of Technology", a funny
student usurpation of the great East-coast institute's name. To explain
"Boulette", this is much more complicated... you need to understand French, and
know parts of the boarding institution's history.)

NXT motor parameters

Hippicurean — 2011-06-12T15:38:55

Hi all,

I came across Philippe Hurbain's excellent website sometime ago. On the
Motor Internals page, there is a link that points to Ryo Watanabe's page
containing information on NXT motor parameters. On that page, the torque
constant (Kt) and back-EMF constant (Kb) have rather different values. In
theory, they are supposed to be numerically identical when using SI units.
Naturally, some level of empirical error is expected when data is derived
experimentally. However, the discrepancy between the two values is large
enough for one to question the validity of the data used for deriving the
motor constants.

http://web.mac.com/ryo_watanabe/iWeb/Ryo%27s%20Holiday/NXT%20Motor.html
http://web.mac.com/ryo_watanabe/iWeb/Ryo%27s%20Holiday/NXT%20Motor.html 

I've emailed Prof Watanabe a couple of times already without getting a
reply. Could anyone shed some light on this, please? Thanks.

Cheers
Hippie

LEGO Group and X PRIZE Foundation Announce MoonBots 2.0 Challenge

Abner — 2011-05-26T12:06:03

[LEGO Group and X PRIZE Foundation Announce MoonBots 2.0 Challenge]¬
Published on May 25, 2011¬
By Andy Choi

The MoonBots 2.0: A Google Lunar X Prize LEGO MINDSTORMS Challenge has been
announced by the LEGO Group and the X PRIZE Foundation.

This contest is being conducted for the second time, mainly for challenging the
youth to create, program and build robots which would execute simulated lunar
missions resembling closely the teams which would take part in the $30 million
Google Lunar X PRIZE private race to the Moon for commercially exploring space.
They have taken on WIRED magazine as a partner along with FIRST Robotics for
designing a competition which would enable students and their families to gain
knowledge about robotics, the Moon and also team building.

According to Chanda Gonzales, the Education Manager in Google Lunar X PRIZE,
during the course of this challenge, participants would be able to create
videos, learn about the most recent technological advances and also acquire
computer programming skills in connection with space exploration. This would
help kids to be inspired and motivated about Moon exploration. The teams would
submit scientific and entertaining video clips about space exploration and they
would also need to write out a proposal that would explain why their robot
should be selected for the funding to go to the moon.

A select group would be picked up from these submissions and taken in as
finalists. They would be given free LEGO components for building a large
Moonscape, which would act as the playing field for the competition. They would
then create their robot with the help of CAD software, program the robot and
finally exhibit their robot to the judges. The teams would then be required to
finish a STEM outreach project to motivate and mentor children to become
interested in the MoonBots 2.0 Challenge, this being a totally new requirement
added this year.

The LEGO MINDSTORMS robotic toolkits have been giving children for more than 10
years, the virtual and physical experiences with both its easy to use
programming software, along with its high tech hardware. This helps in
empowering users to design, construct and program robotic inventions for
learning and play purposes. Youthful robot creators could both create and
program their first LEGO robot within 30 minutes.

According to Steven Canvin, their aim was to both inspire and motivate the
future robot developers and encourage them to follow careers in engineering,
science and technology and mathematics. He also mentioned that the MoonBots 2.0
Challenge was ideal for inspiring young children aged 9-17 to get involved in
the problems which come with lunar exploration by trying to emulate landing on
the Moon by robots built from LEGO MINDSTORMS.

Source: <http://www.googlelunarxprize.org Googlelunarzprize.org>

-end of report-

LEGO robotic boat

Claude Baumann — 2011-04-30T14:28:39

Hi,

"Serendipity", a LEGO robotic boat, was launched on April 28th, 2011. It was
able to autonomously cross the Lac de la Haute-Sûre in Luxembourg, traveling
800m within 40 minutes. The boat started from Lultzhausen; it reached two
waypoints in the middle of the lake and the final point near Liefrange. The
travel was accompanied by a safety team in a motorized boat.

The boat has been developed by a high-school student team from April 2010 to
April 2011. It is made of LEGO material and additional film, Styrofoam and
plastics to protect the electronics parts from water. Besides the HiTechnic
compass sensor, Serendipity has an NXT-compatible GPS module that has been
realized by the team. The NXT programs have been written in LabVIEW Education
Edition.


A very exciting project.

Development journal: http://www.convict.lu/htm/rob/GPS.htm
Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NptlaZd-54k

-Claude Baumann

Hispabrick Magazine 010

Jetro de Chateau — 2011-04-06T08:54:19

Hispabrick Magazine 010 is ready for download from our website
http://www.hispabrickmagazine.com 

In this new edition you will be able to enjoy our regular features, reviews,
MINDSTORMS, LDraw, building trees...

Of particular interest to the Robotics community are the article on the walkers
by Menno Gorter, a MINDSTORMS Challenge and a photo report of the MINDSTORMS
booth at LEGOWORLD Copenhague.

There are also:

- Articles on LEGO Sports, Sphere building...

- Interviews with Mads Nipper, Christian Iversen, Menno Gorter and Alexander
Schranz.

- And a fantastic Star Wars contest.

As always, we look forward to your comments, criticism and ideas at
info(at)hispabrickmagazine(dot)com.

2011 LEGO Engineering Symposium

Merredith Portsmore — 2011-02-20T05:35:52

The Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach (CEEO) invites
you to the 5th annual LEGO Engineering Symposium May 24-26, 2011 at
Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts, USA.

The LEGO Engineering Symposium aims to bring together educators that
want to explore using LEGO MINDSTORMS to teach STEM concepts. This
year's symposium's theme is Pushing the Envelope of STEM Learning. 
Speakers will include researchers in science education, leading K-12
teachers, maverick Mindstorms users, and other folks pushing the
boundaries of technologies for supporting STEM education.

We will be offering six development labs this year:

I. Seeing the Science/Engineering in Children's Thinking.

II. Integrating Engineering & Literacy.

III. SAM (Stop Action Movie Making) - Tools for Children to Create
Representations of their Ideas.

IV. Labview Education Edition - The Next Generation of Programming.

V.  Supporting the Development of Engineering Design Skills in K-12.

VI.  Physics Glasses:  Augmented Reality and Other Fun Things with
Image Analysis

Development labs are an opportunity for participants to learn,
discuss, and develop ideas.  They are different than traditional
workshops in that participants spend time discussing and developing
ideas that can inform classroom practice as well as product
development.  This year we are asking participants to pre-select the
development labs they wish to participate in so that we can better
plan materials and resources.  All development labs will share an
overview of their activities and findings on the final day of the
conference.

Registration is now Open!  Space is limited to 100 participants - so
register early.

Visit
http://legoengineering.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=167
 for more information and registration.

We hope to see you there!

- Faculty, Staff and Students of CEEO

Humanoid Robot

iseoranker — 2011-02-14T08:52:31

any one have idea about world's most advanced
humanoid robots ??????? 

I look forward to hear from you guys..

http://www.pal-robotics.com/ Modular Robots 

-----
http://www.pal-robotics.com/ Modular Robots

Anyone else tried the Firgelli actuators?

Dave Curtis — 2011-01-25T00:09:32

I decided to spring for one of the expensive Firgelli actuators, and just gave
it a quick try.  I either got a broken unit, or it is the worst piece of junk
anyone has ever made for NXT.  First of all, you command it to move a distance,
not command it to a set location like you would expect for a servo.  OK, I can
live with that, but if I command it to move 10mm, some times I get 7, sometimes
I get 12, sometimes I get 20mm, and sometimes it just goes all the way to the
end stop.  Totally el-flako useless. 

Anyone else had any experience with these things?  Did I just get a lemon?

Motors comparison page updated

Philippe Hurbain — 2011-01-12T10:02:43

My [<http://www.philohome.com/motors/motorcomp.htm motors comparison page>] now
includes tests of the E-motor from <http://www.brickset.com/detail/?Set=9688-1
Renewable Energy Add-On Set (9688)>.

<http://www.philohome.com/motors/motorcomp.htm
<http://www.philohome.com/motors/motors4.jpg>>

Enjoy!

<http://www.philohome.com/index.htm Philo>

Brickworld 2011 - Registration Open

Bryan Bonahoom — 2011-01-07T03:47:36

Hello everyone,

We are happy to announce that Brickworld registration is now open. We have been
hard at work performing a complete overhaul on the registration process. In
response to your feedback in the survey after last year's event, we have done a
couple things to the event. Some items that impact registration:


1.There are now 2 types of registration: Full and light. These are described on
the web site. But, essentially, full registration is for someone that is
contributing to the event and partaking in the workshops and presentations.
Light registration is for families that want to show up Friday afternoon, see
the event hall without the public, participate in weekend non-public activities,
and learn from the AFOLs and TFOLs.

2.The full registration will be capped at 650 people to keep things from being
unmanagable.

3.When you register for the event, you aren't considered registered until you
pay (the new process leads you through this)

4.The event will start on Wednesday evening with opening ceremonies later in the
evening. This will lead to having most of the display space available for MoC
setup starting on Thursday morning instead of Thursday evening. Essentially, we
are spreading the event out a bit so it is more relaxing for everyone. The
survey feedback indicated there was too much happening in too small a space in
time.


Don't forget to sign up for your hotel rooms too. Last year the hotel filled up.
And, if you are a first time attendee, everyone will tell you that it makes the
event a lot more fun to be at the hotel.

You can register at the <http://www.brickworld.us/chicago/ Brickworld web site>.
We hope you like the new process and the changes to the event. We are all very
excited about Brickworld 2011.

We hope to see you all in Chicago at the Westin North Shore in Wheeling, IL.
June 15th through 19th.

Warm Regards, The Brickworld Team