October 25, 1999
It's Programmable Cat Toys...It's Cubical Pets for Computer Nerds...No, it's The Unofficial Guide to LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robots
SEBASTOPOL, CA--Legos Mindstorms Robotics Invention Kits may turn out
to be the hottest geek gadget of this year's gift-giving season. Unfortunately, the documentation that goes along with the kit doesn't
take its many fans far enough. Forbes Magazine even
reported recently that dedicated Legos robot programmers had
"open-sourced" code designed to run the robots and posted it free on the
Web. Jonathan Knudson's upcoming book,
The Unofficial Guide
to LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robots shows geek-gadget buyers
everywhere how to get the most out of their LEGO® MINDSTORMS™
Robotics Invention Kit.
"LEGO robots go way beyond being cool toys. Combine a bunch of LEGO
bricks, a standard robot brain, a talented and highly motivated online
community, and your own imagination, and you've got an advanced tool
for learning and teaching about robot design and programming," says
Knudsen. "Best of all, it's a lot of fun."
Based on hands-on robot projects, the book includes descriptions of
advanced mechanical techniques, programming with third-party software,
building your own sensors, working with more than one kit, and sources
of extra parts.
The Unofficial Guide
to LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robots
goes far beyond what you'll find in the official documentation to
enable you to build and program whatever you can imagine.
The Unofficial Guide
to LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robots includes:
- Hands-on robot projects, with complete building instructions and
programs. Different aspects of these projects are used to explore
fundamental issues of mobile robot design.
- A chapter on NQC, a popular programming environment for RIS. You'll
learn how NQC fits into the RIS software architecture, as well as how
to write programs using NQC's C-like syntax. Includes copious
examples.
- A chapter on legOS, an alternate operating system for the RCX. legOS
provides very low-level access to the resources of the RCX, enabling
complex robot programming. This chapter describes legOS' structure and
includes useful sample programs.
- A chapter on pbForth, another powerful option for RCX robot
programming. The chapter includes sample programs in Forth.
- A chapter about building your own sensors. Making your own sensors
is economical and educational. This chapter describes how to build
several different sensors that will work with the RIS kit.
The book includes numerous illustrations and code examples. Many URLs
are listed to serve as an introduction to the thriving online
MINDSTORMS™ community.
Online Resources:
The Unofficial Guide
to LEGO® MINDSTORMS™ Robots
By Jonathan B. Knudsen
1st Edition, October 1999 (US)
ISBN: 1-56592-692-7, 250 pages, $24.95
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