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 robot

Before we get into building this robot, let's explore the strategy we'll be using. There are a lot of strategies in the world of sumobot competitions, but for the sake of this chapter, you will stick with probably the most tried and tested methods to guarantee sumobot success. The design of this particular sumobot is based on the following strategies:

  • The robot should be low to the ground with as little clearance space as possible from the ground to prevent it from being flipped over.
  • The robot should be low in terms of height to keep its weight distribution and center of gravity low to the ground.
  • Gears should be used to create more torque and power for the robot to push and keep it from being pushed around.

Keeping these three features in mind will help you understand why the robot is designed the way it is. Additionally, the robot has been designed in a way that it allows plenty of customization to be made to it, without us losing...