LEGO Mindstorms: Three Generations of Robotics

2025 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2025-01-22 17:55

Every child dreams of at least a small Lego set. And smart parents know that this is a good wish worth fulfilling, because working with details not only allows you to keep the baby busy for a while, but also develops fine motor skills, affects the speech center, and contributes to the development of engineering skills. In addition, with the help of the game, children learn about the world and society. That is why the LEGO company has developed many lines for all ages. For example, the DUPLO series is suitable for toddlers 1.5-5 years old, the FRIENDS line is designed for girls 5-12 years old, CITY is suitable for boys 5-12 years old, and a special LEGO Mindstorms set has been released for older children. It is worth talking about such an unusual constructor separately, because it is a whole complex for creating and programming.

LEGO Mindstorms RXT

First of all, it is important to pay attention to the difference between this set and other LEGO series. The fact is that the LEGO Mindstorms robot is not just a constructor, but a set of elements and power supplies that allow the figure to move and respond to stimuli.

For the first time the company released such a constructor in 1998. True, that version bore little resemblance to the modern one. It was a set of standard parts like axles, wheels and gears that came with a processor, a bi-directional infrared port, a display with a built-in speaker, and several sensors.

Of course, you can't really dream up with such a set of parts, and, alas, there were no that many instructions that can be found today. Nevertheless, it was this designer that caused a lot of excitement and gave life to the LEGO Mindstorms line. The creators did a good job expanding the possibilities and resources of this series and soon launched a new version of the designer.

Mindstorms NXT

In 2006, the second generation of Mindstorms robots, which was called NXT, went on sale. It is worth noting that there were several versions of this series. In 2009, the NXT 2.0 version was released, which was somewhat different from its predecessors and contained 613 dice. In addition to the standard basic parts, more advanced elements appeared in it, which made it possible to diversify assembly variations and increase the functionality of the set. The NXT 2.0 also included:

• Programmable block.
• 3 servos that can be used as turn sensors.
• A color sensor capable of detecting primary colors.
• Two touch sensors.
• An ultrasonic sensor capable of determining the distance to objects and responding to movement.
• Many axial and gear mechanisms that allow you to set the individual parts in motion.

Thanks to all these innovations, the robot assembled from the designer could sort small parts or balls by color, move and perform maneuvers, bypassing obstacles, etc. And especially advanced amateurs were able to program their fighter to assemble a Rubik's cube. However, perhaps this is just a myth?

Mindstorms EV3

The modern EV3 kit appeared on the market in 2013 and immediately found a lot of fans, because the composition of the designer has been improved, it has even more various sensors and sensors. Its distinguishing feature was the LINUX operating system and RAM increased to 16 MB. In addition, the display has become larger, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth support has appeared. All this allowed the creators to dream up plenty! Only on the official website of LEGO Mindstorms, instructions are provided for 17 assembly options (in the box there is a manual for only one model) from the available 601 parts. And on amateur forums you can find more than 50 models!

LEGO Mindstorms Education

It happens that some details are missing for an idea. It is unrealistic to buy them separately in Russia, and you won’t take an expensive set of the Technic series for the sake of one gear. The company took care of that too! Today, LEGO Mindstorms Education resource kits are presented for attention. In their composition even more variety of details, so that your child will be satisfied. Often it is Education that is used in educational institutions, as well as in leisure creativity centers, wheremugs "LEGO"-construction. No wonder, because together with the basic set you get as many as 1418 parts, from which you can create the most unimaginable robot!

Education kits are also used in worldwide competitions. Pupils and students aged 10 to 21 can participate in them. Otherwise, this Olympiad is called the International Robot Competition (ICR). In Russia, they are held in 4 stages, and the winners are awarded a ticket to the summer robotics camp!