Book Image

Build and Code Creative Robots with LEGO BOOST

By : Ashwin Shah
Book Image

Build and Code Creative Robots with LEGO BOOST

By: Ashwin Shah

Overview of this book

LEGO BOOST is a feature-rich creative toolbox that helps kids to develop science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills in a fun way. The LEGO BOOST kit consists of motors, sensors, and more than 840 LEGO pieces to bring various multifunctional robots to life. This book will take you on an interesting and enjoyable journey where you will have fun building robots while developing your problem-solving and logical thinking skills. This book is an end-to-end guide that will take you from a beginner to expert level of robot building with LEGO BOOST and Scratch. Starting with the unboxing and a brief introduction to LEGO BOOST, you'll quickly get your first robotic model up and running. You'll understand how to use the electronic and non-electronic components and have fun building a range of intriguing robotics projects with increasing complexity and advanced functionality. Throughout the book, you'll work on a variety of amazing projects, such as building your own R2D2, a fictional character from Star Wars, that will pique your curiosity to learn robotics and help you explore the full potential of the LEGO BOOST kit. Once you've had fun working with the projects, you'll be introduced to an interesting challenge for you to solve by yourself! By the end of this book, you'll have gained the skills to build creative robotics projects with the LEGO BOOST creative toolbox, and have built on your logical thinking and problem-solving skills.
Table of Contents (20 chapters)
14
Bonus Chapters

Introduction to the electronic and non-electronic parts of the BOOST kit

Let's first understand the various electronic parts given in the LEGO BOOST kit with specific functionality:

  1. BOOST Hub: This hub is the brain of your robot (the microprocessor of the hub serves as the brain). The hub is connected to your tablet via Bluetooth. The hub has two built-in motors (motor A and motor B) as well as an built-in tilt (gyro) sensor. It needs six AAA-sized batteries to operate. It also has two input/output ports:

    Figure 1.3 – The BOOST Hub

  2. Interactive motor: The interactive motor comes with an built-in rotation sensor. This allows us to check the number of rotations/the speed at which the motor is moving. This feature also allows us to add precision to the robot's programming; for example, you can move forward or backward for a specific distance/rotation, allowing the same stopping position of the robot each time:

    Figure 1.4 – Interactive motor

  3. Color...