Lego Mindstorms NXT Robotics Announced

Denver_80203 writes "Just when you thought Lego Mindstorms was grinding its last gear, comes the announcement of Lego Mindstorms NXT Robotics Toolset, with sleek servo motors, an ultrasonic sensor which allows robots to 'see' by responding to movement, a sound sensor which enables robots to react to sound commands (including sound pattern and tone recognition) improved touch and light sensors, and a and a programmable brick with at least 7 or 8 RJ11 type jacks. Robot fun! Out in August 2006, and in true Lego style will cost $249." Wired has a preview of the cover story about the new kit on their site.

Will these be able to take on RoboOne Bots?!?

[neo]

I want to go a kick some Korean butt!! If I can program these guys for remote control I'm totally going to save thousands of dollars and spend that on programmers to teach this bot Pride Fighting. Oh, they are so going down!!!

I don't think grinding it's last gears is correct.

[Lester67]

The original (and 2.0) version of their kit was massively popular, and it attracted a "geek base" of fans that wouldn't have accepted your typical "version 2.5". Props to Lego for realizing this and taking a little longer than most companies would to release the "right" product instead of the "quick" product.

orcboard, open source robotics controller

[edwinolson]

Or you might be interested in the OrcBoard robotic controller [orcboard.org], which is open source (schematics, layout, firmware, userland tools all GPL). It's being used by a number of robotics classes (6.188 [mit.edu], 2.12 [mit.edu]), and a robotics competition (MASLab [mit.edu]) at MIT.

It's a bit different than mindstorms in that it's designed to be used as a slave to a laptop or other more CPU-rich device. But you can use it in stand-alone mode too, if your robots are simple.

-Ed
(disclaimer: creator of orcboard)

Problem Lego Microsoft

[foolish_to_be_here]

A major problem with LEGO robotics is that they are so much like Microsoft. They really make it difficult to add to the product. The only way I could make the origional kit interesting for kids was to script a Tk interface using Perl's RCX and NQC (not quite c) system calls via their IR tower. This off loaded the application program from the brick to a PC. I have BIG dobts that this particuar kit will simplify the programming with it's newest proprietary programming language (Photoshop like , so they say). If they give the brick an 802.11g wireless interface, the Open Source community will do the rest.

Roomba Support

[Netzilla]

It would be great if it supported the Roomba Serial Control Interface.

Roomba Vacuum Robot Opens to Hackers
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/ 17/0814200&tid=216 [slashdot.org]

Compare it to THIS (fischertechnik)!

[knopf]

Lego looks pale and boring in comparison to fischertechnik [fischertechnik.de]. VW even built a complete plant using fischertechnik to verify their plan design (see here [streamhoster.com], it's towards the end). They offer a driver in C, PASCAL, etc. They have IO extensions. Everything's there.

I am torn on this myself...

[cr0sh]

I currently own an RIS, and I rarely mess with it (mainly because I have waaaay too many other projects to do so). I love Lego, ever since I was a child (one of my first real Lego kits was the Expert Builder crane - can't remember the number right now). When the RIS came out, I had to have it, so I bought it, and then later bought a couple of upgrade kits (the remote control/sensor pack and the expansion parts kits). But something always disappointed me, and the NXT seems to be the same way:

Not enough I/O ports!

On the NXT, if you look closely, you are still limited to three motor outputs (that fourth port on the controller at the "top" is for USB). As for inputs, there still seems to be a limit of 3 general purpose inputs, plus one extra "special" ultrasonic input (it is strange - they mark the other inputs on the controller brick, but leave the ultrasonic unmarked - I have to assume that it is meant for the ultrasonic sensor only).

What if you want to hook up more sensors, or more motors? What if you want to hook up old sensors and motors, how do you do that? From what it appears, you can't - you can only hook up the same number of motors and sensors as the old RIS (minus the special ultrasonic sensor).

This is what makes me wonder whether Lego is paying attention at all to the market they created. For anyone who has perused the websites of Lego RIS creators, they will quickly learn that there are a few things that these people want: more motor outputs and more sensor inputs (witness the number of people creating numerous schemes to allow multiplexing of the I/O space), a greater variety of sensor types (witness the number of people making and selling custom sensors), and an easy/efficient way to network the controller bricks.

I will go further to say that there are many people who would love to see more than just motors - I know of some builders who have taken miniature pneumatic solenoid switches and converted them to allow them to control Lego pneumatics. How about a real Lego pneumatic pump (instead of having to build one from parts - although there are a ton of ingenious designs)? How about a Lego linear actuator (I have seen people build these too from Lego mini-motors and worm gears)? Why not a Lego stepper motor?

Furthermore, all of this could have been built into the same four-stud plate electrical connector - even the new motors with their in-built rotation sensors could have used this (two wires for power, one or two for the sensor). You would have to maybe round/notch the corner of the plate to indicate "pin 1" (like an IC chip), and you would need to add some additional protection (maybe diodes or something) for n00bi3s who connect the lines wrong, but it could be done. Standardize the motor output pins on the place (and sensor input pins) to be the same as current motors and sensor hookups. If done right, all the old stuff could work with this system, and new parts, like the new motors and sensors, could be added as well. Or, go with the current RJ jacks, and add dongles to connect old sensors/motors (maybe they will do this - I can assure you if they don't, someone else will).

Ultimately, at the minimum, they really need more I/O jacks for more motors and sensors, and a way to easily network the controller bricks. Perhaps the USB port will facilitate the networking of the controllers (?) - we won't know until people start playing with them. If Lego was smart, they would release a "super-controller" that had more I/O for those who want it and need it. It seems strange that the original Lego controllers developed at MIT had way more I/O capability than this new controller. There is no valid excuse, unless they just want to avoid confusion (which I can't understand, because they don't seem to understand that young kids are not really their target market for Mindstorms).

For myself, I am finding that if I want to do any kind of real development of robotics, it is just best to stick to breadboards, a soldering iron, PIC controllers and/or BASIC Stamps, hobby R/C se