The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book

Reviewed by Michael Potter

Contributors: Martijn Boogaarts, Jonathan A. Daudelin, Brian L. Davis, Jim Kelly, David Levy, Lou Morris, Fay Rhodes, Rick Rhodes, Matthias Paul Scholz, Christopher R. Smith, Rob Torok. Forward by: Chris Anderson Publisher: No Starch Press www.nostarch.com Released: September 2007 Pages: 368 $30 USD, $36 CND ISBN: 1-59327-150-6 ISBN-13: 978-1-59327-150-3 Audience: Intermediate
Strengths: Excellent background information, clear concise illustrations, not overly laden with technical jargon, handy reference charts and worksheets, lay-flat binding.   Weaknesses: would like a few more pages devoted to programming and design.

Introduction

 

When the first LEGO MINDSTORMS set was released back in 1998, it revitalized the LEGO building community, sparking a whole new way of thinking about what these familiar, nubby-headed blocks could do. But then, in 2006, LEGO took the concept further, introducing LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT, a set that incorporated many of the changes suggested by MINDSTORMS hobbyists, updated programming methods, a Bluetooth interface, as well as a new style of LEGO bricks. These new bricks no longer sported the long-familiar buttons on top, but, instead, used a whole-brick connection method that allowed for much stronger robots that held together better when in operation.

 

Born from The NXT STEP blog, The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book is written in a technical, but easy to understand language to help enhance your experiences with LEGO's next generation robotics kit.

 

LEGO lovers never grow up, but our tastes do become more sophisticated, so we seek out projects of a scale much larger than sets based on the latest Harry Potter movie. The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robotics sets provide a way for LEGO lovers to bring their creations to this next level.

 

In this book…

 

If you typically like to jump right into your projects, you may be tempted to flip ahead to Part II of The LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT Idea Book and start building robots – and that would be fine – but you'd miss the ton of great information found in the first part of the book.

Divided into eight chapters, Part I, Beyond the Basics, gives a great introduction to the MINDSTORMS concepts, delves into programming and design methods, covers problems you're likely to run into when building your own robots and, of course, provides solutions to those problems.

 

Being new to the MINDSTORMS system, but not to LEGO bricks, I really appreciated the history of the sets and clear explainations for what is contained in each of the different versions of the MINDSTORMS NXT kits as well as information on third-party sellers of add-ons not officially sanctioned by LEGO.

 

For those new to NXT-G, the programming language used to give “brains” to your artificial life forms, Chapters 2 – 4 are fantastic walk throughs of basic programming concepts such as branching and sequences, block structures and loops and switches. Not intended to be exhaustive tutorials, the hints and tips provided serve as an adjunct to the online help built into the software downloaded from LEGO for use with the NXT brick.

 

Chapters 5 and 6 delve into the hardware you'll be using to construct MINDSTORMS robots. All good information for new builders to understand, these chapters cover each of the sensors provided, detail their intended use, discuss blocks types that can be used to program them, as well as potential drawbacks to the sensors – such as the inability to use the sound sensor for a true voice recognition system.

 

Design is also given due consideration as each part's native function, software-enhanced function and known physical limitations are charted for easy reference. Offering guidence to novice builders, the authors cover creating a design concept, prototyping your robot, testing your robot, and the inevitable repairs and design changes needed when something goes wrong. And it will.

 

Worksheets are provided at the back of Chapter 6 that will come in handy as you embark on your own projects.

 

Bluetooth is new to the MINDSTORMS NXT system and Chapter 7 is dedicated to making connections from your Mac or PC to the NXT computer module. With a slight nod to the Mac's inherint Bluetooth connectivity prowess, I had to chortle when I noticed the Mac connection instructions covered barely one page (with half the page taken up by a single screenshot) compared to the two pages of instructions and screenshots required for Windows. Once again, the Mac's ease of use prevails!

 

One of the benefits of Bluetooth enabled robots is inter-NXT communication. Though perhaps a bit advanced for novice users (mostly because multiple kits are needed to accomplish this), the latter half of Chapter 7 covers the important things to note when attempting these types of connections, including the use of a “master” brick to act as gatekeeper for sending messages to, and between, multiple “slave” bricks. Because the idea of communications among bricks happening via “mailboxes” can be complicated, the inclusion of this information is important to help those new to the system grasp the concept more readily.

 

Chapter 8, NXT to NXT Remote Control – allowing one robot to control another – is an interesting one because it takes an idea that early fans of the MINDSTORMS NXT system had, and explains how they tackled the issue, the programming behind it, troubleshooting, and potential improvements. For the most part, this chapter takes everything we learned in the first seven chapters and puts it to practical use. And, again, the authors use their own experiences to encourage us to embark on our own.

 

Part II, The Robots, includes instruction for building eight MINDSTORMS NXT robots. Some of my favorites include the ScanBot, a Slot Machine, a 3D PhotoBot and RaSPY, the Rock, Paper, Scissors robot.

 

Each robot has its own chapter that's broken down into construction of the bot and programming its actions. For the more complex bots, the building process is further broken down into subassemblies. Giving us more than step by step illustrations, the more challenging robotic projects detail some of the issues encountered as the robots were built, such as the reels of the slot machine needing to be square rather than round and the requirement that the lever withstand multiple pulls without coming apart. Even getting Marty the peforming robot to hold its pen (I suppose I should say “his” pen) proved difficult.

 

Challenges were also presented in the form of coding the bots to behave as expected, and those are covered as well. Detailing their difficulties getting the robots to work properly is an invaluable learning tool for someone like me who often learns best through trial and error.

 

One of the things I like most about the construction half of the book is that the writers not only give you the steps to construct your robot and program it, but they go out of their way to delve a bit into the logic behind what they've done. This makes the programming of your robots a much more educational process and serves to spark your own creative juices to expand the given projects or come up with some of your own. In addition, the writers also present many of their own ideas for plussing the robotic creations.

 

Conclusion

 

If you've recently purchased the LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT kit or are simply exploring the idea of getting one, I think you'll want to add this book to your shelves. The first half of the book, combined with the appendices, more than stoked my fires for getting the set myself. And, with the information given comparing the two sets to choose from (educational vs. retail) as well as LEGO's own Resource Kit, I feel I'm well prepared to do so. The robots found in Part II, provide a good, and logically progressive, introduction to building with the MINDSTORMS NXT set and, after going through their projects, I'd feel more than comfortable enough to use them as building blocks for “plussed” bots or to strike out on my own.

 

Recommendation

 

So much of what you read in this book is about sharing ideas and, indeed, that was the genesis of the book itself: LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT enthusiasts sharing ideas and realizing they had something bigger on their hands. The infectuous enthusiasm for the LEGO robotics kits comes through in the authors' writing and will very quickly get you itching to build your own robots to share.