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)

Building the stand

Before we build the actual guitar, we will start with building a stand to place the guitar when it is not in use. The stand is not a super-detailed creation as it uses the elements left over from the guitar build, but it serves a purpose and achieves the necessary function.

The base will look like this when complete:

Figure 4.2 – The stand for the guitar

Let's start building it!

Building the base

To get started, you will need the following pieces:

  • Two black 11x15 open frames
  • Two black 3x5 L beams
  • Four black connector pins

The required pieces can be seen in the following image:

Figure 4.3 – Pieces needed for the stand

You will start by grabbing two of the open frames and securing them together using the 3x5 L beams. This part is the main frame of the stand. You will stand them in a perpendicular fashion. Use two black connector pins with each of the L beams, using...