Senor Parrot's Perch

Via ExtremeRobot, a star wars styled robot powered by a Legos NXT robot:

I suppose shaking around like that is at least something.

This video is from TechRepublic. It shows a robot developed by Boston Dynamics and Sandia National Laboratories for the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It’s easy to imagine the military uses for this thing. The landing looks a bit tough for a manned ride-along.

Here is a link to Sandia’s article on the robotic jumping jackaroo.

Lego Robots are amazing. They’re easy to construct. My youngest was able to help assemble one when she was only 5 years old (and she’s 6 now). The programming is simple, with assembling programs as easy as dragging action components and setting  some simple parameters on a computer screen. If you outgrow the computer brain that Lego provides, there are third party brains that snap in and let you program more complicated routines in languages like C. This is great for your teenager.

Lego Robots are also helpful for teaching complex concepts in math. Here is a short news clip of math teachers learning how to use Lego Robots in the classroom:

The video is courtesy WHSV.com in Virginia.

Robots are good for a lot of things, but this is about as good as it gets! I have discovered that someone has made a robot that can make your coffee for you. Now I love my daily grind, but if someone, or something, can grind and brew it for me, well, how can it get any better?Robot Living reported on this fabulous development from Japan.

I’m showing this to the rest of the family and hinting that it would be great for next year’s Father’s Day. I drink enough coffee, all by myself, that Ancora opened a shop around the corner just for me, their best customer.

I’m intrigued by the programming involved. I wonder if I could pull this off with a Lego Robot? Anybody know?

My kids loved this video. Three teens, calling themselves The Galactic Wailers have constructed instruments from Lego bits and pieces and Lego sensors. These are not robots, but they are instruments that incorporate sensors and other stuff used in lego robotics.  Legos are the coolest toys ever made.  It’s  over here is the newspaper article where I learned about this.

Here’s their really cool video where they describe their instruments and  perform the theme to Star Wars:

This sort of stuff inspires them. It’s over their heads, right now, but they start aiming higher. I think its great.

Some time last summer I got the bug to build a robot. I wanted to get my oldest daughter, age 11, involved, too. Lots of things about robots appeal to me. They are very much the nexus for a lot of cool, current and emerging technology: (more…)

My daughter and I are planning on getting a lego robot and experimenting with it. Here is a video some teacher put together of her students working with them. This video is from TeacherTube, and I wish I knew more about it, other than this looks fun.

Just as the teacher/narrator says, there are lots of principles of math involved, most of which are not that advanced, even for young kids. This strikes me as a great way to increase interest in math, programming and engineering in school kids.