LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 is a perfect kit to get started with robotics. Combining LEGO versatility with powerful sensors and software, MINDSTORMS makes building robots incredibly easy. The programming is done in a graphical drag-and-drop environment, which means the hardest aspect of robot development has been simplified so that elementary school students can become experts. Still, the algorithms shown in the LEGO tutorials are actually very similar to algorithms used in real-world robotics systems, which makes this kit even more valuable, especially for kids. While older MINDSTORMS kits didn’t include any way to control your robot with a device, the EV3 comes with a wireless controller. Additionally, EV3 robots may be controlled with smartphone apps.
Each kit comes with instructions to build five completely unique robots, some of which can talk, shoot plastic balls, walk, and hunt. Those robots, however are meant to be starter bots – the number of different robots anyone could design and build with MINDSTORMS is insane. If the five starter robots aren’t enough, anyone has the ability to post their own designs on the LEGO website for others to download and build. Students have built and programmed rubik’s cuber solvers, soda can openers, mini V8 engines, segways, and more with these kits alone.
We will do for robotics what iPod did for music.
FLL robot
LEGO set out to make robotics a big thing, especially for children. They have certainly done it. FLL (FIRST LEGO LEAGUE) is the international robotics competition in which children 9-16 compete with their custom MINDSTORMS robots. A new set of “missions” are released every year, and teams in nearly every major country race to make the most efficient robots possible. After months of competing, the best teams meet at the world championship in America to determine the champion team. Students that start in FLL usually graduate to VEX or FTC, and finally FRC, where high-school students develop highly advanced robots to compete on a much greater scale. Students that compete in FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) tend to become successful engineers in a variety of fields after they graduate.
The MINDSTORMS kit is a perfect tool to get started in the world of robotics – everything is simplified to an extent that makes experimentation cheap and quick. This speeds up the learning process immensely, and gives children the ability to become experienced robot developers before they leave elementary school.