Book Image

Smart Robotics with LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor

By : Aaron Maurer
Book Image

Smart Robotics with LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor

By: Aaron Maurer

Overview of this book

LEGO MINDSTORMS Robot Inventor is the latest addition to the LEGO MINDSTORMS theme. It features unique designs that you can use to build robots, and also enable you to perform activities using the robot inventor application. You'll begin by exploring the history of LEGO MINDSTORMS, and then delve into various elements of the Inventor kit. Moving on, you'll start working on different projects which will prepare you to build a variety of smart robots. The first robotic project involves designing a claw to grab objects, and helps you to explore how a smart robot is used in everyday life and in industry. The second project revolves around building a working guitar that can be played and modified to meet the needs of the user. As you advance, you'll explore the concept of biomimicry as you discover how to build a scorpion robot. In addition to this, you'll also work on a classic robotic challenge by building a sumobot. Throughout the book, you'll come across a variety of projects that will provide you with hands-on experience in building creative robots, such as building a Dragster, Egg Decorator, and Plankton from Spongebob Squarepants. By the end of this LEGO book, you'll have got to grips with the concepts behind building a robot, and also found creative ways to integrate them using the application based on your creative insights and ideas.
Table of Contents (12 chapters)

Summary

In this chapter, you explored the concepts of gears, sensors, making various decisions based on feedback, and how to use simple engineering principles to build an effective robot. This chapter was focused on providing you with building and coding concepts related to how you can use the different components that are available in the Robot Inventor Kit, as this will help you build a strong sumobot model with high torque and stability via gearing mechanisms. Additionally, you used sensors to trigger the different actions of your sumobot. This ensures that you will have success in battles. You did this by identifying the border of the arena and stopping the sumobot from falling off the edge, as well as using the distance sensor to activate attack mode when your competition is within striking distance.

Now, it is time to engage in a battle. Find a friend, foe, or local competition and see how you do. Feel free to battle other types of robots as well. There are so many ideas,...