

Lego Mindstorms EV3: The Better, Faster, Stronger Generation Of Robotics - shawndumas
http://techcrunch.com/2013/01/06/lego-mindstorms-ev3-the-better-faster-stronger-generation-of-robotic-programming/

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patja
Mindstorms is pretty cool...but the price puts it out of reach of any but the
well-heeled.

I run an after school tech program for kids in grades 5 - 8 where we've worked
with Scratch quite a bit, and did one session on robotics using the Pololu 3pi
line-tracing/maze solving robots and the Parallax Mini-Sumo bots. These robots
run $100 - $150 each as opposed to the Mindstorms $250+ (now $350) price
point.

There is a huge untapped market for a programmable robot at the $50 - $100
price point.

~~~
todayiamme
>>> Mindstorms is pretty cool...but the price puts it out of reach of any but
the well-heeled.

I run an after school tech program for kids in grades 5 - 8 where we've worked
with Scratch quite a bit, and did one session on robotics using the Pololu 3pi
line-tracing/maze solving robots and the Parallax Mini-Sumo bots. These robots
run $100 - $150 each as opposed to the Mindstorms $250+ (now $350) price
point. <<<

I have tested the Parallax Sumo bots and Mindstorms and I'm firmly of the
opinion that the Mindstorms set represents better value.

The thing is that at the end of the day the Parallax Sumo bots are one trick
ponies and have a fixed chassis and configuration around which you really
can't extend without some effort. Even if you do put in the effort, then your
design is constrained by the type of chassis the machine came with. For
example, you can't easily convert the sumo bot into a hexapedal or bipedal
walker. The value proposition for these machines rests solely on programming
them in beautiful ways and it really isn't possible for a child to extend the
machine itself. Assemble it yes, but it extend it? Not yet.

On the other hand with the Mindstorms set you have these precision milled
parts that can be combined in endless ways by anyone to create anything from
walkers to holonomic drives. There's also the benefit of the entire Lego
range, you can easily mix and match all of these parts and combine them in
countless ways with one another to give you literally any type of machine you
want without getting out a file or a drill. That's something that instantly
appeals to children and I remember the amazing feeling I used to get out of
playing with Mindstorms when I was a little girl. I could actually create
something that was "alive," and there was nothing better than that.
Programming seemed dull and useless to me as compared to putting these pieces
together and bringing them to life, somehow. It was captivating and it's what
gave me the real push towards actually learning engineering. That's a miracle
if you think about it and it represents great value.

>>> There is a huge untapped market for a programmable robot at the $50 - $100
price point. <<<

It's actually quite easy to build something yourself at that price point. Get
$3 DC motors, waste aluminium channelling from build sites, acrylic, gear
boxes + wheels, wires, an arduino, and a few screws. Build a frame out of the
channelling, use the acrylic sheets as a type of wall, drill and mount motors
on the acrylic sheets and put the arduino on somewhere with pencil cells.
You're good to go.

~~~
shpxnvz
> On the other hand with the Mindstorms set you have these precision milled
> parts...

From the video it looks like the regular old injection-molded plastic Lego
bricks - are there new milled parts being used in the EV3 kit?

~~~
todayiamme
Yes, you are right the plastic bricks are injection-molded. Sorry for not
being clear, but I was actually thinking about Mindstorms + TETRIX, which
includes precision milled metal parts;
[http://www.legoeducation.us/eng/categories/products/universi...](http://www.legoeducation.us/eng/categories/products/university/tetrix)
. There was an and over here that got deleted during editing. Lego's
tolerances are crazy, btw. In some cases it's as low as .04 mm.

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neovive
Excellent! The NXT 2 set is wonderful for introducing robotics and programming
concepts to students. I hope the programming interface and software in general
is improved; the current version is very difficult to install on Macs. I
switched my kids over to the Enchanting
software[[http://wiki.scratch.mit.edu/wiki/Enchanting_(Scratch_Modific...](http://wiki.scratch.mit.edu/wiki/Enchanting_\(Scratch_Modification\))]
which allows you to program NXT robots in a Scratch-based environment.

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andreasklinger
I think we cannot over-estimate the importance of this.

Lego got many of us into the mindset putting stuff together until it matched
our imagination. It's great the bring this onto a new level for the future
generations. (And myself… as soon as I have ordered it ;) )

~~~
sqqqrly
google "thymio". IEEE's Spectrum had a nice write up on it. My son has one
now.

~~~
yardie
I looked it up, here is the link
<https://aseba.wikidot.com/en:thymiophilosophy>

This robot seems to be the right price as well €100 with shipping. At this
price and with the amount of sensors, lights and switches built in they must
be building them at cost. I'm trying to do something similar with sparkfun and
dfrobot and its just killing me that 2 sensors alone cost a plumb.

This is awesome!

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LiveTheDream
A much better article was previously posted:
<https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5019835>

~~~
shawndumas
don't underestimate the power of video...

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conradev
Another, more advanced robot building system (great for high schoolers) at
around this price point is VEX Robotics. It has a great community, with
friendly competition.

<http://www.vexrobotics.com/vex>

~~~
DigitalJack
That is awesome! It reminds me of the old Erector Sets.

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mintplant
> Mindstorms has been around for almost 14 years now, but Mindstorms EV3 marks
> the first time that users can program directly onto the brand-new EV3
> Intelligent Brick. In past iterations, users were only allowed to program
> their robots from the computer

This isn't correct at all. I've had a MINDSTORMS kit for several years now,
and I've been able to program on-brick since the beginning.

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infinii
Can someone please explain to me the differences in Lego's following lines?

Technic, Mindstorm, EV*, NXT

I'm looking to get something for an 8yr old to pique his curiosity.

~~~
tellarin
Technic is just mechanics. The other three are quite the same, plus
sensors/actuators and programmable.

For a 8 years old I'd start with plain LEGO. And then introduce the rest a
little later.

But this depends on what the kid already likes. I see no problem in going
straight to programmable stuff if he/she already showed interest in it.

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niels
My first ever programming job was a project for Lego and as a bonus they gave
my friend and I a Lego Mindstorms set each. This was version 1.5 of the first
edition. I remember we installed legOS (now brickOS) which allowed you to run
code on the RCX. Definitively gonna buy EV3. Would be fun to try some of the
algorithms Sebastian Thrun taught in his Udacity robotics course.

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cygwin98
This is one of a few products I wish we had cheap clones, priced at say less
than $100, preferably in Android.

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zem
why is there nothing on lego's site about this? (i'm assuming there isn't;
google doesn't turn anything up and none of the blog posts and press articles
i can find link directly to lego)

~~~
reirob
There is actually something: [http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-
us/default.aspx?icmp=COUSFR29M...](http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-
us/default.aspx?icmp=COUSFR29MINDSTORMS)

It says "Coming Fall 2013: LEGO MINDSTORM EV3..." - Now I am a disappointed to
wait for 9 months.

