LEGO Robotics: Two good examples of biped walkers.

While poking around YouTube I came across two good examples of bipedal robot walkers using the LEGO NXT on MoveToDecaf's YouTube Channel.

The first video is of a biped robot named Little Joe:



The second video is of an un-named walker using the rocking motion of the controller for movement:



This is definitely inspiring me to get off my duff and start making more progress with my LEGO NXT system. I am don't think I will build a walker, but I hope to post a video of a rover of mine on this blog some day.

Cheers ~ Jim

The ultimate air cannon robot from Vex Robotics

A friend recently sent me a link about what has got to be the ultimate air cannon robot, and I just had to post about it!

Check out "Air Cannon Looking for Targets (Video)" from ROBOTS DREAMS!

The robot was produced by Vex Robotics, and this thing is just freaking awesome! Once you view the video in the article showing all the mechanical aspects of the robot then move on to the videos of this thing shooting. Here's a picture of the cannon from the article:



This has got to be the ultimate in cubicle warfare, but you wouldn't dare use it would you :)

This is definitely inspiration for me to get moving with my little NXT robot project, and then move on to bigger and better robotics projects. I'll definitely checking out both ROBOTS DREAMS, and Vex Robotics for lots of ideas and more great articles ~ Jim

Going slow, just getting by.

Over the last few days I've been sick and out of sorts, but I am getting back up to speed. Right now my major challenge is not letting others negativity get to me.

It's hard, but I am finding that if I involve myself in projects I find I am not so down. It's hard to stay motivated, but it's preferable to getting in a funk. Hopefully the employment picture improves after the start of the year.

Recently I've been learning more about Visual Studio 2008 Express, and moving forward with my reading. I have also been cleaning up my other blogs, so that there is a common appearance.

Maybe the end of the week, I'll have some news of more progress with the Lego NXT bot.

Bots and blogs

Here are a couple shots of the Lego NXT robot I built over the last few days. Right now I am using the canned programs that came with the kit, but over time I hope to learn C# and then use the Microsoft Robotics Studio to create new routines for the robot.


It's not a bad little bot, and the motors have more than enough power to send it flying right off the table. The robot seemed a little flimsy while I was building it, but it was sturdy enough once I finished. My one complaint is that it requires 6 AA batteries, so I need to pick up some more AA Ni-MH if I am going to get serious about working with the bot.

On other fronts I have been updating my resume, reading Head First HTML with CSS & XHTML, and updating my other blogs. I'm hoping to get some feedback on both the Cloudymidnights, and Urbanspelunkers blogs. If you have a moment, check out the blogs and let me know what you think.