They once had little to do with actual robotics, but two product iterations and 15 years later, about to release their 3rd-generation kit, Lego is at the top of educational, DIY, and plain old fun robot building. MINDSTORMS EV3 is coming, and the robo-geekosphere is buzzing. And whirring.
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Legos, Robots, and Education
The basic underlying concept of the Lego – build it yourself – actually fits quite well with most practical robotics development. See, unless your project has been underway for years, has reached Kickstarter-ready status, or is swimming in government, major university, or massive global corporation cash (e.g., commercial drones, industrial robotics, ASIMO, Robonaut, ATLAS, HRP, HUBO, etc.), robotics research is an almost intrinsically small-group, bootstrapped DIY endeavor. Early-stage work begins with a design (or freestyle!), then the collection and assembly of workable off-the-shelf parts or building/machining them by hand, then doing something about a power source, software, etc., etc., carefully incorporate all variables, and then [Keep reading…]
Source: akihabaranews.com