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)

Attaching the Intelligent Hub

This next part is the really exciting part because this is where you will add the brains of the operation—you will start to see Plankton come to life with this section of building.

To kick things off, you will need the following pieces:

  • Two black 5x7 open frames
  • Eight black connector pins

The required pieces can be seen in the following image:

Figure 9.62 – Parts layout

Each open frame will have four black connector pins attached to it. Two will be on the edge pin holes, on the 5L side. Along the 7L side at the bottom, add the other two black connector pins, as illustrated in the following image:

Figure 9.63 – Black connector pins added to open frames

Using these two black connector pins, connect each open frame to the motor that will activate the mouth of the robot, as illustrated in the following image:

Figure 9.64 – Open frames...