Youtube can help you to design your Robot!

I just bought, one week ago, the Lego Mindstorms NXT kit, and I've now finished to build the 4 models proposed by the LEGO guide, included in the kit. It has been very useful, since they let you now about the enormous potential of this kit. After these models, I started to build my own robot.

It is not so easy to realize a good model, and maybe this is the reason for the availability of many dozens of books about this subject. I think that one or more books are the first step to design serious robots and do not waste time trying and trying again.

However, there is another place where to find, indirectly, hundreds of tips and tricks about building a robot: Youtube (TM). Just click the link (title of this blog) and you can see what I mean. Yes, there are naive models, but there are also some robots that I would define brilliant: forklift truck, biped walkers, animals, and so on.

Therefore, if you're stuck in building that robot arm or you cannot integrate the motor in your model, why not try to look for similar ideas in Youtube? It is free, it is inspirational and people are happy to show their models to you. Maybe let a good rating and comment in return

LEGO Mindstorms fever!

I would like to talk about Lego Mindstorms.

I had to fight with relatives to persuade them that the LEGO Mindstorms are not toys for childs, and that the medium age of the people that buy this article is 27 y.o.
In the meantime I was persuading also myself, because to start again playing with LEGO at almost 29 y.o. is not so typical.

Some months ago I read on Scientific American an article (read here) where Bill Gates asserted how, when he was at the start of the Microsoft adventure, the personal computer was starting to change the life of everyone and he recognizes it as a revolution. He said also that the next revolution is robotics. In some decades we will see the robots change our life in every aspect.

I think that this is the point. I truly believe that the next decades will be extremely changed by robotics, so why do not get involved in it?

The first approach to robotics was a kit from DLR, the ASURO. I am not very able with soldering, so I obtained a little robot not working properly. I was not able to program it and I abandoned soon the little robot adventure.

Now I think I found the solution to my problems: the LEGO Mindstorms kit. I do not need to solder anything, and there are tons of books, newsgroup, newsletter, and so on talking about this branch of LEGO. I just bought "Building Robots with LEGO Mindstorms NXT" and, in my mind, I am already designing robotic arms, robotic animals, robotic vacuum cleaner, and so on. I hope this time I will get deeply involved with robotics... we will see.

In the meantime, for the Mindstorms maniacs, I do recommend the cited book.