NXTLog Holiday Building Challenge!

With the coming up of various holidays, NXTLog have released a new competition, to build a  seasonal holiday related robot!!

The bot can be anything to do with seasonal holidays, Christmas, Thanks-Giving, etc,  and you have until the 31st December, 2008 to submit it.

All entries must be tagged with "NXT200812"

The same rules as other NXTLog competitions also apply
To see the article on NXTLog, click here

NXTLog's Cool Creature Building Challenge

Hey all, it has been a while since I last blogged or built anything, and this will continue to be so for about another 3 weeks due to exams, but I will still try to update this blog site when ever possible. This next article is probably quite old by now, but I will quickly mention it here anyway.

The Challenge? To build the coolest creature possible using LEGO MINDSTORMS! As quoted from the official NXTLog page on this competition:

Creature" for this contest means animals of any sort. So go out and build the most creative robotic animal you can imagine.

The competiton closes on Friday 31st October, 2008, and your entry must be tagged with "NXT200810" to be able to compete in the challenge. You must also explain how the robot is an animal in your NXTLOG documentation.

The Official NXTlog page for this challenge is here

Thats all for now, I have a few ideas for my next MINDSTORMS creation, which will hopefully be posted here after my exams.

NXT NXT Competition - Results

The results of the NXT NXT competition are in... and the NXT Whac-A-Mole recieved the creative use of NXTlog award! Here are the judge's comments:

"One of the most creative projects submitted to this challenge, a NXT Whac-A-Mole! The idea of this model is to push, or hit as many moles that pop in and out of the "Mole Whacking Platform" as quickly as possible. When a mole is hit, a score indicator mole that is attached to the score tower will be raised. The NXT Whac-A-Mole is controlled and powered by two NXT bricks, one controlling the mole's touch sensors and motors, and the other controlling the score tower and indicator, light sensors, and any other sensors and motors that cannot be plugged into the first NXT brick. LinearActuator provides excellent pictures, a detailed NXTLOG and screen shots of the master and slave prgrams. We would love LinearActuator to share an LDD file and a video of the robot in action. (This is LinearActuator's 2nd project on NXTLOG.)"

I am pleased that the NXT Whac-A-Mole has won an award title, but I am going to try and aim higher during the next competition and try to achieve the Champion award!

More info on the results of the NXT NXT Competition can be found here

More Information on the NXT Whac-A-Mole can be found here

NXT Whac-A-Mole

After blogging about the latest NXT competition, I decided that I might as well enter it. My entry? A NXT Whac-A-Mole! All of the details can be seen on NXTLog(http://mindstorms.lego.com/NXTLOG/ProjectDisplay.aspx?id=e246a926-5dbf-480d-8d6d-cd03c84ed458)

Here is a link to a YouTube video showing the NXT Whac-A-Mole in action!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaUfiYdSh3M

The NXT Whac-A-Mole uses two NXT bricks and an assortment of motors and sensors to create an excellant entertaining and amusing game machine that the whole family can enjoy.

Summary:

The score tower was made using the Catapillar tracks also from the Techic Bulldozer. When a point is scored, the tracks move, causing an attached score indicator to be raised or lowered.

When the score indicator reaches the top of the tower, an Ultrasonic Sensor tells the master NXT brick to lower the score indicator and begin a new, faster, harder game for the player.



The Light sensors and Hi-Technic Colour Sensor are used to help create an exciting atmosphere, and can easily be programmed to light up in a series of patterns when the player scores a point.

Using Bluetooth, the "Slave" NXT brick tells the "Master" brick whenever a mole is hit. The moles are made out of many engine chassis from such models as the Technic Bulldozer. When hit, the engine chassis pushes down onto a touch sensor, which tells a NXT brick to add a point to the player's score, raising a point indicator attached to a score tower.