The Technic Alley

An interesting presentation – How FIRST Robotics can influence students and play a critical role in reshaping school education.

blip.tv video link

Over 140,000 children are participating in this year’s FIRST Lego League (FLL) tournament, comprising 14,725 teams from 56 countries. That’s almost a 14% growth over last year’s participation, as the chart on the FLL site shows.
Starting from the pilot tournament in 1998 in which 210 teams from 2 countries participated, FLL has grown steadily across [...]

First things first….
What is FIRST?
FIRST stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology. Here are some quotes and pictures from the FIRST website.
FIRST is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profi t
organization devoted to helping young
people discover and develop a passion for
science, engineering, technology, and math.
Founded nearly 20 years ago by inventor
Dean Kamen, the 2008-2009 FIRST season
attracted over [...]

Here is an interesting creation using Mindstorms NXT, a Rolling-Orbital-Bluetooth-Operating-Thing (ROBOT) as its creator calls it.

Spherical Robot 02 (YouTube)
This project uses two NXT controllers: one inside the “thing” and an external one that acts as the remote control. The two controllers communicate via Bluetooth. The external controller is also uses NXT motors that are very [...]

I found this cool video demonstrating how to build a Wii-like remote control using Mindstorms NXT sensors. This project uses the compass and acceleration sensors that are not part of the standard NXT kit, but can be purchased separately. RobotC is the language used for programming. 

Click here to view it in the original page if you [...]

New to Lego? Curious about gears, pulleys and stuff? The Lego Constructopedia has cool graphics that illustrate how you can use gears and pulleys to do various things.
Take this quiz and try to solve the problems before you click on the answers.
1. How do you make two pulleys connected by a belt to turn in [...]

These are some of the robots that you can build with the NXT kit.

The Humanoid – Alpha Rex
Alpha Rex is very sophisticated. He can walk, talk, hear, see and feel! You can visit Alpha Rex’s Home to learn all about him.

The Animal (Scorpion) – Spike
Spike is like a real scorpion. He can crawl on [...]

[This post is part of the article Robotics With Lego Mindstorms.]
Robotic Feeler
Imagine that you are blindfolded and had to feel your way around a room just using your hands. This is exactly how a robot can navigate itself if it had to rely only on touch sensors. In this case, the touch sensors are really [...]

This is a collection of all my current posts on this topic.
Robotics Is Child’s Play With Lego Mindstorms
Lego Mindstorms NXT – An Overview
Meet The NXT Robots
The Touch Sensor
A Gears And Pulleys Quiz
FIRST Lego League 2008 Tournament

[Continued from Robotics Is Child's Play With Lego Mindstorms.]

This is AlphaRex, a humanoid built using the Mindstorms NXT kit. This is among the many forms of robots that you can build with the NXT kit. AlphaRex can walk, swing his arms, greet you, respond to a handshake, respond to light or to objects nearby. [...]