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 scorpion body

The beauty of this robotics kit is that you can easily get started with any type of build because of the new pieces that are included. You are going to use the large LEGO 11x19 teal base plate as the main frame of the scorpion. This will be a vital piece where you will add motors to the wheels for movement, along with adding the entire top build of the scorpion. As with many builds in this book, you are utilizing this element to provide a base plate to hold everything together in a solid structure and format.

You can see what the base plate looks like in the following image:

Figure 5.2 – Starting with teal base plate

One of the LEGO pieces not found in this kit is a LEGO Technic Steel Ball Caster ball, or even the plastic version found in the SPIKE Prime kit. You will have to design a new way to operate your robot. What a wonderful design challenge! While there are plenty of wheels to use, a scorpion does not look like...