Subject:
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Re: lego mindstorms
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.robotics
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Date:
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Tue, 30 Nov 1999 01:16:29 GMT
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Original-From:
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Brian Connors <CONNORBD@YAHOO.stopspammersCOM>
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Viewed:
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927 times
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This answer should be pretty all-inclusive, I should
think...
--- Sv3004@aol.com wrote:
> hi everybody,
> i'm kind of new at this and i just started
> reasearching the lego mindstorm
> robot.
> what can it do and is it worth getting?????
Mindstorms is a series of (currently) six sets from
Lego that allow you to build homemade robots. Are they
worth getting? Yeah, I'd say so; I don't have one yet,
but I do plan to. Here they are:
Robotics Invention System (1.0/1.5) -- The basic
MindStorms set, comes with the basic MindStorms
microcontroller ("Programmable Brick" or "pbrick"),
the Robotic Command eXplorer (RCX). It is designed to
allow you to create fairly sophisticated robots;
programming is done on a PC (or Mac or Unix box, with
third-party support) and uploaded via infrared to the
RCX. The thing that makes the RCX interesting is the
fact that it is possible to remove the Lego firmware
and replace it with your own; it has also been quite
thoroughly hacked over, so it's a well-understood
piece of hardware with robust third-party support
(most notably, NQC (which has been tacitly
acknowledged by Lego), LegOS, and pbForth). Standard
Lego development software is a graphical language
known as RCXCode. The RCX is based on work that was
done at MIT.
Lego Dacta ROBOLAB -- based on the RCX as well, and
sold through Lego's Dacta division and their
distributor Pitsco, ROBOLAB is Mindstorms for the
educational market. Its programming language
(developed at Tufts University in Somerville, MA) is a
graphical language based on LabView, and is supported
on both MacOS and Windows. It costs about twice as
much as the RIS, though.
Extreme Creatures and RoboSports -- Two expansion sets
for the RIS. Probably only useful to those playing
with a-life concepts and the like; dissecting Technic
sets is a cheaper way to get parts.
Robotics Discovery Set -- Based on a pbrick called the
Scout, the RDS is designed first and foremost for
younger children and people with no access to a
computer that supports the IR tower. The Scout is
designed for field-programmability, though it's
basically limited to reacting to sensory input.
However, Lego has recently released software to allow
the Scout to be used over an IR link as with the RCX;
presumably, work is ongoing to create third-party
support for the Scout, but I haven't heard much of
that other than a bit of reverse-engineering on the
Scout bytecodes. The Scout has numerous interesting
features that the RCX doesn't have, though, which
means it will probably come to generate quite a bit of
traffic of its own on this list.
Star Wars Droid Developer Kit -- Apart from being a
good introduction to robotics for a fairly young child
(i.e. 9-11, old enough to handle a Technic set), the
DDK doesn't have a lot to recommend it. Its
controller, the MicroScout, is very simple, with seven
programmed behaviors and what seems to be a slave mode
that allows it to be hooked up via a fiberoptic
connection to a Scout. More than anything else, it's a
starter/spare parts kit. Its main advantages are that
it's cheap and it comes with instructions on how to
build R2D2. One caveat: the box indicates that a
Wintel PC is required to run it. This is not true; it
has perfectly adequate paper documentation, and one
person I've spoken to who owns the DDK has never
looked at the CD it comes with.
There are two more sets you should know about from
Lego that are not strictly part of the Mindstorms
lineup but are nevertheless related.
Technic Cybermaster (originally only available in
Europe, but now seems to be stateside as well) is very
similar to the RIS, sharing maybe 70-80% bytecode
compatibility, but it's based on a radio link instead
of IR and has ROM-based (fixed) firmware. It also has
a few interesting features such as motors with
built-in tachometers.
Technic CodePilot is probably the most unusual Lego
robotics set. Essentially it allows you to create
robots that are controlled by bar-code; software to
generate the barcodes is available online, though I
don't believe the set itself is all that easy to get
(I know it can be had at the Construction Site in
Waltham, MA, but wherever else I have no idea).
The ones most worth getting right now seem to be RIS
1.0 (with the 1.5 upgrade), RDS, and maybe CodePilot
(its barcodes and the Scout's VLL (Visible Light Link)
protocol are related). Spare parts are best had by
buying and cannibalizing Technic sets. The best book
to buy is Jonathan Knudsen's Unofficial Guide to Lego
Mindstorms from O'Reilly, though Dave Baum is working
on (published?) another book that I haven't seen yet.
Does that answer your question?
/Brian
=====
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