Mindstorms + Water ????

I think you probably feel the same way that I do about getting your Mindstorms electronics close to water. You don’t even want to chance it. But I would love the chance to build a robot that isn’t restricted to movement in two dimensions. I think I could create some really interesting stuff. The whole shape of a submarine robot would be completely different that things I make now. It would also take some calculations to get the buoyancy correct so it doesn’t float or sink too much.

Parts would likely be an issue. You might have to create non-Lego parts for ballast tanks. Not to mention the mostly ineffective propellers and screws that Lego makes.

I was looking around the other day, and I found three videos of people who don’t feel the same way about sinking their Mindstorms in water. It appears that all of these videos were made at institutions of higher learning so the possible loss of high dollar electronics would be covered by the school.

One thing I found really interesting is that in two of these videos, the 9-volt gear motors are fully exposed to the water. Reading some of the comments, the poster says that the motors are almost completely waterproof and very little water enters the housing. I still don’t know if I would take the chance with my own stuff.



(WARNING, REALLY BAD MUSIC!!)

Freaky Cool Off-Road Vehicle

Now here is an off road vehicle with all the bells and whistles.  He put tons of effort into the user interface with a great realistic dashboard.  Absolutely incredible.



What, no heated seats???  You're just not trying hard enough.

My Favorite From 2009

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for following my blog in 2009.  It's been great fun for me to bring you Tinkernology.  I plan to keep bringing you cool stuff in the future, but I can't do it unless you guys keep building stuff so keep it up.

My favorite post from this year was the stuff that superbird28 posted back in 2008.  I looked back and I realized that I missed possibly the best of his creations.  For your viewing pleasure... Brickline 1

Robotic Glockenspiel

I just love this...

More Robots and Lego

Mitsubishi is the latest company trying to make children obsolete. *sigh*

Angled Beams

Have you ever wondered why these beams are at an angle of 143°? More precisely, 143.1301°.

It’s a good question, and I wondered for a long time as well. Then I discovered why, and it's actually pretty simple. It’s because of the Pythagorean Theorem. You know,

I discovered it while I was building a long truss, much like this one.

If you look closely at this simple truss and count not the holes but the hole spaces. The hole spaces are the length between the holes. For example, if you have a nine hole beam, there are eight spaces, a fifteen hole beam, there are fourteen holes spaces, etc. When you count them up, you'll find you have a common 3-4-5 right triangle.

Remember that the Pythagorean Theorem only works for right triangles, so the formula works out to be

3^2 + 4^2 = 5^2

or

9 + 16 = 25

I know that once I figured this out, life got much better and I began to use these oddball beams a whole lot more often.  The 3-4-5 right triangle is very useful in engineering and especially useful in building with Lego. I have used it several times, and I hope to share some constructions with you soon.

Merry Christmas

I hope all of you woke this morning in this fashion.

Robotic Prank

One underutilized function of robotics is the good ole’ prank. There’s nothing like a robot with a hidden surprise. I have a few in mind that are pretty simple but effective.  Here’s a video that’s not a gut buster, but certainly a light chuckle.

High Bay Warehouse at LEGOWorld 2009

I have been waiting a long time for this video, and it just leaves me wanting to see more.



Absolutely incredible.  I WANT MORE VIDEO!!

Puzzles

Want a good, extremely challenging Free Lego Technic game to play over the holidays? Check this out!  It's called Cogitate.

Note: My security software returned this note;  “In our tests, we found downloads on this site that some people consider adware, spyware or other potentially unwanted programs.” There is also other feedback from others saying they had no problems, and I had no problems. I have my security set pretty high.

Here’s another Lego game that I found fun too. It starts out pretty easy, but over 40 or so challenges, it gets harder. It's called Lego Junkbot.

iPod-NXT Analogy

I caught this photo recently of the developers of Lego Mindstorms at work.  The banner in the background really caught my eye.  I am interested in knowing your thoughts whether or not Lego has achieved this or if they ever will.

Two Motors-One Rotation Sensor

As I mentioned several times before, I really like the PF motors. I like everything about them except the fact that they don’t have built-in rotation sensors. So I thought long and hard about how to incorporate the old RCX rotation sensor into the drive wheels of a bot. I am not crazy about using up the input ports with RCX rotation sensors. The idea I came up with is to read the rotation of two motors with a single rotation sensor.

(Click to Enlarge)

I did it by running a chain from the driving axles of each wheel back to the axles of the differential gear. Then the outer gear of the differential gear turns the rotation sensor. As each wheel turns, the rotation of the driving shaft is transferred back to the sensor through the differential gear. There is no power “leakage” from one wheel to the other because the rotation sensor easily turns and doesn’t transmit through the differential. The lightweight chains can be used because the power transmitted is very small. I ran it around the floor some and it seems to work.

Pretty nifty, but interpreting the sensor output takes some thought. First, when both wheels are turning, the readings are twice as fast as if only one wheel is turning. This is because of the nature of the differential gear. Not really a big deal as long as the programming takes that into account. Second, if the wheels are turning in opposite directions as in a “zero radius turn,” the reading will not change because the axles on the differential gear are turning in opposite directions. Again, you have to take that into account with your programming. Third, if both motors are turning at different speeds, the reading doesn’t make sense. I think that this condition can be avoided most of the time. So for a general reading of straight forward and reverse, left and right, this crude solution should work just fine.

I like this solution for a few reasons. It means that the driving wheels can be controlled by the NXT and the HiTechnic IRLink. You will have used only two input ports while leaving three motor ports open for other tasks! They can also be controlled by the IR remote control although the sensor readings won’t make sense. So you have an intelligent robot that can drive itself and you also have a robot that you can drive remotely without making any hardware changes.

Children Are Now Obsolete.

There is finally video of the Motoman robot assembling Duplo bricks at IREX 2009.

MakerBot

There is a growing group of people who are buying and building a scratch built 3D printer called MakerBot.  The technology is based on Stereolithography which is “is an additive manufacturing technology for producing models, prototypes, patterns, and in some cases, production parts.” (Wikipedia)

Basically, it is a computer controlled machine that builds parts out of material by adding several layers over and over until a 3 dimensional “thing” is produced. It’s pretty cool stuff and it is becoming more and more popular among scientists, engineers and professionals. It used to be very expensive and not many people knew how to use it. With the popularity and ease of use of many 3D solid software packages and off-the-shelf electronics, it is becoming much friendlier to the hobbyist. The MakerBot retails for under $1000.

In fact, some futurists believe that one day, rather than going to the store to buy certain things, you can go to your machine and “print out” what you need. That technology is far off in the future, but here is an example of someone using their MakerBot to create Lego pieces.

Here's a video of the machine in action.

And now a word from our sponsor....

Incredible Festo

I have to give it to Festo. They are really thinking outside the box on their creations. Check all these out and you will see what I mean.

First of all, Festo BionicTripod mit FinGripper. It resembles a parallel robot.


Then there’s the CyberKite. Just in case you have become too lazy to go fly a kite.


But don’t forget the Festo Molecubes...


And then finally, the Air Ray.


There’s more too. Just go to the FestoHQ channel on YouTube.