Our new sets

I finally saved up enough scratch to buy a 8043 Motorized Excavator yesterday. 

Funny thing is that I used to buy the big sets through S@H, but now that Columbus Ohio has a Lego store, a couple of times a year we load the family up for a two hour drive to a huge mall.  I almost regret taking the whole family because since it is a mall and my wife and kids are with me, well, you probably get the idea.  We always hit the Lego store first, then I have to compose myself and NOT beg to go home so I can bust open all those little transparent bags of joy.

Then tonite, we all sit on the floor, I sort the parts getting it ready to assemble, my oldest works on her 4596 Beach house and the toddler plays with his Duplo 5813 Lightning McQueen.
 

And everything is right with the world for a few hours.

Nice Arm!

This video will amaze you and creep you out at the same time.



Gizmodo says "It’s the Robot Hand H-Type, which is made of polycarbonate and rubber. It has 16 joints and 22 actuators to make and can lift up to 1.5kg."

Nice.

Lego UAV Quadcopter Maiden Flight

A moment of pure bliss followed by a moment of horror.

Smooth Walking Spider

This guy has an interesting color scheme that is easy on the eyes.  And the motion is soooooo smooth.

More Jansen Inspired work.

Here's a Theo Jansen inspired robot packed full of functions.  Is there anybody that he hasn't inspired????

LEGO NXT Quadcopter. No, really!!

I like where this is going...



I so wish that Lego would put out a fast, powerful motor along with an efficient propeller.  I can see reasons why they don't, a high speed sharp object spinning for one.  But think how awesome that would be.

E3-MB LEGO NXT Mobile Base

Bazmarc has created a really nice, complicated machine that has lot of interactivity.  I likey.

Dancing robot

While watching this, I couldn't get "I feel pretty, oh so pretty" out of my head..

Othello

Here's a pretty cool robot playing the board game Othello.  Needs a little work though.  Just a little.

Factory WIP

I don't know what this will be doing because it is a WIP, but I like it so far..

Maslow-For Robots

Cool vending machines

Some time ago I bought a bottle of cola in the cinema and found a very cool vending. Here's a video of a similar fantastic machine:


While searching for videos of that particular machine I also found a video of a very nice LEGO vending machine. The way coins are handled is great. The design to drive the belts of the products is also very smart...

Programmable...But No Computer

Here's a clever idea....

Rock 'em Sock 'em

I caught this video over on BotJunkie.



I have thought for a long time that more Lego Roboticists would be doing more of this stuff.  I expected that people would be attaching compass sensors to their body to direct robots.  I thought that people would be putting gyro or acceleration sensors on their arm or head to direct turret guns or something else.  Even a rotation sensor on their elbow to control a robotic arm.

I guess I will have to put that on my "to do" list.

Using A Robot As A Simulator

Imagine going to your local arcade and sitting in a bank of eight of these things and racing with your friends.  But I wonder what would happen if you crashed and rolled it.

LEGO vs. Fisher Technik

Let me start with a little disclaimer on this one, I am
writing most of this from memory. I did check
Wikipedia but that did not gave me hard facts.

In the eighties I had several types of construction toys:
LEGO, Meccano and Fischer Technic. Because of the wide range
of possibilities the only toy to survive was LEGO.

The early LEGO technic sets where great but they lacked a lot
of components we take for granted today. Some examples of these
are the worm screw gear and the pneumatic cylinder.




These are the parts we need! But wait a minute... where did
I see those parts before? Maybe some came in a set like this one
(this is a modern version):



While the LEGO robot world was still living in the stone
age the Fischer Technic guys where building stuff like this:



I think the LEGO people where "inspired" by the
Fischer Technic parts...