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

Chapter 14: The Grabbing Robot

In the previous chapter, you built a compact forklift and programmed it to move boxes from one place to another. Did you notice that the forklift was unable to carry unevenly shaped objects or even circular objects properly from one place to another? Well, forklifts can easily lift square and rectangular boxes, but to pick up small objects, circular objects, or anything else that's an obscure shape, we need to implement a grabber with a hand-like grip that can easily grab and drop things.

In this chapter, you will be building a similar grabbing mechanism and completing various tasks. Did you know that your hand is an example of a simple machine lever? Your wrist, palm, and fingers act as a load-carrying agent, your elbow is the fulcrum, and they work together. You will be implementing the same concept while building this grabber and replicating the movement of your hand. The following figure shows a robot with a grabbing arm like the one we will...