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

Building the tabletop fan

Before building this fan using your LEGO bricks from the LEGO BOOST kit, let's look at the elements needed to build this fan:

  • BOOST Hub
  • Motor
  • The wings of the fan

Great! We will be building the tabletop fan shown in the following figure:

Figure 2.1 – Building a tabletop fan with a LEGO BOOST kit

Figure 2.1 – Building a tabletop fan with a LEGO BOOST kit

Follow these steps to build this tabletop fan. Make sure that you select the right pieces from your kit, as mentioned in the building instructions:

  1. Take your LEGO BOOST Hub. Make sure that the BOOST Hub has fully charged batteries in it:
    Figure 2.2

     

    Figure 2.2

  2. Take five 4x6 bricks and stack them on the BOOST Hub, as shown here:
    Figure 2.3

     

    Figure 2.3

  3. Take two 1x6 plates (orange) and place them on the top of the stack:
    Figure 2.4

    Figure 2.4

  4. Now, take the external motor and mount it on the orange plates that you just attached:
    Figure 2.5

    Figure 2.5

  5. Now, take a 1/2 bush and one 3M yellow cross axle and attach them to the motor:

     

    Figure 2.6

    Figure 2.6

  6. Take a 2x2 round brick and insert it into the 3M axle:
    Figure 2.7

    Figure 2.7

  7. Take a 2x6 plate and attach it to the white brick with a cross:
    Figure 2.8

    Figure 2.8

  8. Take two 2x3 white plates and attach them to the 2x6 blue plate:
    Figure 2.9

     

    Figure 2.9

  9. Take another 2x8 plate and attach it between the two white plates. This will form the base for the fan's wings:
    Figure 2.10

    Figure 2.10

  10. Take four 2x6 black bricks with bows and attach them to the white and gray plates. These are the wings of your fan:
    Figure 2.11

     

    Figure 2.11

  11. Take four orange 1x2 plates and attach them to the fan's wings:
    Figure 2.12

     

    Figure 2.12

  12. Take a 2M cross axle and one white brick with a cross. Attach it to the gray plate, as shown here:
    Figure 2.13

     

    Figure 2.13

  13. Take a sprocket and attach it to the 2M cross axle. At this point, your tabletop fan is ready to use! Connect your motor to port C:
    Figure 2.14

 

Figure 2.14

Now that your tabletop fan is ready, let's program it.