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 7: Building a Helicopter

We are always fascinated by the way we see airplanes and helicopters flying. They are the fastest form of transport today. While planes are used for long-haul as well as short-haul routes, helicopters are quite handy for traveling within the city as well! While airplanes need a long runway to take flight, helicopters can fly without a runway. Just like fighter planes, helicopters are also used in warfare. To achieve flight, various factors must be taken into consideration, such as thrust, drag, weight, and lift, all of which need to be balanced. Although we cannot build a flying helicopter using our LEGO bricks and BOOST Hub, we will build a prototype helicopter in this chapter and go through some fun activities. This helicopter will have rotating blades on the top as well as at the back, as shown in the following figure:

Figure 7.1 – Helicopter

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

  • Building a...