Subject:
|
Syngress LEGO book Review
|
Newsgroups:
|
lugnet.robotics
|
Date:
|
Sat, 28 Dec 2002 10:02:29 GMT
|
Viewed:
|
754 times
|
| |
|
|
Hello All,
Well the third book in Syngress' "10 Cool LEGO Mindstroms" series is out on
the bookshelves. It contains robots that use components included in the
Ultimate Builders Set and Robotics Invention system 2.0.
Quick Overview
This 263 page book contains instructions for 10 Amazing LEGO Mindstorms
projects that can be built in under an hour (their words, not mine). The
layout is "constructopedea" style with some construction images accompanied
by clearifying text. Like the first two books in the series (Dark Side
Developer and Robotics Invention System) the graphics are top notch.
Construction images are drawn with parts from previous steps ghosted out.
This really makes it easy to figure out where each new piece goes. Each
construction step is also accompanied by a parts list. The instructions for
each robot average around 20 pages each (except for a few big ones) with 2
steps per page. Most of the robots can be built in less than an hour.
The cast of builders is familiar to those who have purchased the other books
in this series. Kevin Clague (creator of LPub, the software used to
generate the images for the book) is back with his robot Robo-Hominid.
Kevin also had 3 biped walkers in the first book (Dark Side Robots).
Robo-Hominid is a two-legged weight shifting walker that can walk forwards
and backwards and can turn. The design is interesting and unusual.
Robo-Hominid's legs are constructed out of layered bricks instead of pinned
liftarms and beams. Unfortunately for readers who only have the RIS 2.0 and
UBS, Kevin cheats a bit and uses parts not available in those kits.
Otherwise a really nice effort.
Another nice effort is by David Astolfo. Dave supplied the DominoBot, a
tracked robot that lays out dominoes. It uses a light sensor to follow a
black line, laying dominoes at a preset distance along the path. It has to
be one of the cooler LEGO robots I have ever seen.
Stephen Cavers supplied 4 robots. Three of the robots are strikingly
similar. WideBot is a two wheeled (with skids) differential drive robot
that searches out bright lights. SumoBug is a high torque tracked robot for
Sumo competitions. I always thought that wheels provided better traction
than treads, hmmm. HunterBot looks a lot like SumoBug with a gripper. It
might be a good entry in a "Capture the Flag" type competition. Stephen's
other robot, Hopper, is the most unusual of the 4. Hopper looks a bit like
a grasshopper. Hopper doesn't actually hop, instead it kind of shuffles
around. But the legs move in a "hopping like" motion.
Tonya Witherspoon and her son Alex created the Drawbridge and the Candy
Wrapper Compacter. The Candy Wrapper Compacter is the only robot that uses
the pneumatic parts contained in the UBS.
This brings us to Dr. Soh Choi Siong (CSSoh). I find it interesting that
Dr. Soh, who is best known for his pneumatic engines, did not use any
pneumatics in his two designs, Nessie and Nellie. Nellie and Nessie are
simple differential drive robots used to demonstrate line following and
odometry concepts. These robots are also cheaters when it comes to the
parts inventory. Nessie uses an extra light sensor and Nellie a rotation
sensor.
I haven't been really excited about this series so far. The images are
nice, but there is no flow or continuity to the books. Each one is just a
collection of 10 unrelated projects. Unlike the very fine "Building Robots
with LEGO Mindstorms" by the Ferrari brothers and Ralph Hempel, these books
are not a treasure trove of useful design and building information.
Conclusion
I haven't been really happy with this series of books. After publishing
"Building Robots with LEGO Mindstorms" I felt that Syngress really
understood LEGO Mindstorms and Robotics. Unfortunately none of the 10 Cool
project books have any of the magic contained in their predecessor. The
graphics are very nice, and some of the robots are pretty good.
Unfortunately many of the designs lack artistry, and a few are almost
embarassing. Not what I expect in a book I just paid $25(US) for. Even if
all the designs were good, the books have little technical content and no
thematic continuity. You won't learn much by building these robots.
P.S.
If anyone out there has read any of these books, could you please write a
reveiw for Amazon. Right now there is only one review for each book, and
I'm pretty sure it was written by someone associated with Syngress.
|
|
Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Syngress LEGO book Review
|
| (...) I bought the DSDK book. I wrote a review too, but not for Amazon - for Lego MindStorms Monthly. (URL) (after January 20th the link will be (URL) Thorn (22 years ago, 28-Dec-02, to lugnet.robotics)
|
2 Messages in This Thread:
 
- Entire Thread on One Page:
- Nested:
All | Brief | Compact | Dots
Linear:
All | Brief | Compact
|
|
|
|
