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June 13, 2005
By: David Anthony
Website: http://www.a1-in-toys.com
Lego Robotics – Getting Started With Robotics
Lego Mindstorms is an excellent way to get your kids to understand robotics. The
Lego
Robotics kits are superb mechanical toys that can teach your child engineering and science
skills. They will enjoy hours of fun as they build and design robotic projects.
Lego Mindstorms
allow you to experiment with mechanical and programming issues of robotics. You can immediately
start building your own robots.
The Lego Mindstorms Robotics Invention System contains an 8-bit computer processor called
the RCX and is combined with the familiar plastic building blocks. You can create
a programmable robot with the use of the RCX which is the brains of the unit.
The robot can be programmed to perform tricks like walking a path or detecting an
intruder by using light sensors.
Mindstorms comes with a tutorial and software that can be run on any PC with speakers.
There is an infrared transmitter that is attached to your PC’s serial port which will beam
programs from the computer to the RCX brick.
The Lego Mindstorms Robotics kit includes:
- 718 pieces
- Two bricks with mechanical motors
- Two bricks with light and touch activated sensors that control a robots movement
The nice thing about the Lego Mindstorms robotic kit is that you can use standard Lego
building
bricks to design larger robots. You can also buy add-on sets with parts like
mechanical hands, claws
and arms. These extension sets can perform such tasks as shooting hoops, hockey pucks, and
even attack an intruder. A nice feature of the robotics system is the number of different
toy robots that can be built. For each mechanical robot there are detailed instructions as to how to put
together one.
There are a number of excellent skills that your child will gain from lego robotic kits.
Your child will learn some basic computer programming and engineering skills, as well as
develop their imagination and creativity.
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