[Robotgroup] Local kids and robots

Thu Jan 18 07:15:38 PST 2007

Hi Tim,
Thanks for the correction. Any chance the Austin group will get going again?
My neighbor (whom I've never met) posted his blog on our neighborhood list
yesterday. It was photos of a water main break but was preceded by this:

"Friday January 12, 2007 
It's a Lego world
[Rampant Consumerism]| Permalink | Comments [0] 

I'm in heaven. My oldest, Jack, is way into Lego building blocks. For the
past 35 years, with only a couple of misses, Santa Claus has brought me
something Lego for Christmas. Sometimes it was huge, sometimes not so huge,
but always appreciated. Legos, for me, provide a link to my past. Heck, I've
even got some on my desk at work. And now one of my sons has taken an
interest.

This Christmas, Jack (and I) really made out. First, Grandma and Gramdpa
came down with a 50 lb suitcase full of all of the Legos that I've received
over the years. All of the individual sets have been co-mingled into the
most uber-universal building set ever. So, what is the first thing I do? Try
to recreate my favorite set from yesteryear, of course. That set is the auto
chassis, which is the first "technical" Lego set ever. It is pretty cool
[photo of box 893]. I lost the instructions over the years, but, confirming
my belief that everything is now on the Internet, I found a site that
contains instructions for just about every Lego set produced. How cool. So
far, Jack and I have built the engine (an inline 4) and much of the
front-end steering assembly.

Jack got two nifty sets - the construction crane and the passenger plane.
Technically, the plane is a bit of a disappointment - too many of the pieces
(esp. the fuselage and wings) are unique to the plane - they are just molded
plastic with some Lego bumps on them. The crane, however, is a piece of
work. I wound up doing most of the assembly - it is a little too detailed
for Jack. I had him do what he could until he failed, and then I completed
the task. The crane is extremely well-made - there are significant
sub-assemblies that enhance the overall structural integrity. It really is
impressive.

I also got the Holy Grail - a Lego Mindstorms NXT kit. This is the robotics
kit. Part of it is building the mechanics of a robot and part is programming
it. The programming environment is quite nice. I'll use it until I get
comfortable with robotics and then I'll probably ditch the OEM'ed
environment and go with a Java-based one. These things can communicate via
Bluetooth, which is quite provocative. I'd love to put together several
(i.e. 10 or more) robots that can communicate with each other and try to get
them to exhibit flocking behavior. Way too expensive, but a neat dream."

Makes wonder who else living just down the street is into Lego (besides the
obvious ten-year-olds)? And who else is inspired by their new NXT kit? It's
still a top seller on Amazon (who no longer makes you buy through Toys R
Us). 

I'll have to look at the TexLUG site again to see what's goin' on. And what
used to go on here!

Betty
(at Sumobot I told you I'd just got the Unofficial LEGO Builder's Guide, and
we entered a robot copied from David Perdue's book. Neither book has helped
me much - I think a hobbyist club would be more inspiring and informative.)

-----Original Message-----
From: Tim Rueger [mailto:trueger at yahoo.com] 
Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 7:48 AM
To: The Robot Group Mailing List
Cc: Betty
Subject: Re: [Robotgroup] Local kids and robots

Betty/All,

To be more precise, TexLUG hasn't been active in
Austin recently.

TexLUG just had a very successful event at a children's
hospital in Houston, and we're doing a booth again
this year at the Healthy Baby and Child Expo in San
Antonio March 2-4.

But no, not much in Austin as of late.

-Tim

On Jan 17, 2007, at 9:10 PM, Betty wrote:

> I talked to Tim Rueger at August's Sumobot tournament (which happened  
> when
> the line-following event didn't get enough entries, I think). He said  
> the
> TexLUG isn't currently active. That's all I know.
>
> Betty
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: robotgroup-bounces at puremagic.com
> [mailto:robotgroup-bounces at puremagic.com] On Behalf Of Gray Mack
> Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 8:05 PM
> To: The Robot Group Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [Robotgroup] Local kids and robots
>
> I didnt see a mention of http://www.texlug.org/  (Texas LEGO Users  
> Group) in
> your email.
> However, it looks like the austin chapter
> http://www.io.com/~rueger/lego/texlugaustin/index.html has not been too
> active since their line following contest in June 2006.
> Have they merged into one of the other groups you mentioned?
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Betty <bettydingus at austin.rr.com>
> To: robotgroup at puremagic.com
> Sent: Wednesday, January 17, 2007 4:59:37 PM
> Subject: [Robotgroup] Local kids and robots
> Hi,
> This is Betty Dingus. I've attended two meetings now, plus a Dorkbot. I
> uploaded an article about the One Laptop Per Child program a few weeks  
> ago.
> I homeschool my eleven-year-old son, Eric, and we both joined the Robot
> Group last week (although Eric wasn't physically there). We'd heard of  
> the
> group years ago from Bob Comer, our neighbor. I signed up for the  
> Meetup
> group, also.
>
>
>
> I'm interested in robotics and teaching it to kids, although I'm  
> neither
> technical nor an artist (my degree being in Anthropology). Locally,  
> there
> are summer camps (such as the pricey IDtech , as recently discussed)  
> and a
> tiny program at the Children's Museum. Most of the ongoing action is in
> contest teams, though. So here's the scoop about what Austin kids are
> involved in (at least, that I know about):
>
> ...
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________________________________ 
> _____
> ________
> Yahoo! Music Unlimited
> Access over 1 million songs.
> http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited
>
> _______________________________________________
> Robotgroup mailing list
> Robotgroup at puremagic.com
> http://lists.puremagic.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robotgroup
>
> _______________________________________________
> Robotgroup mailing list
> Robotgroup at puremagic.com
> http://lists.puremagic.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/robotgroup
>