Perhaps the first image you conjure up in your mind when you see ‘Lego’ are cheap plastic building block toys that children build houses out of. I used to… but then again, what do children build Lego into these days?

Well, you’re right about one thing - the robotic Lego Mindstorm NXT is made of hard plastic - but it certainly isn’t a building block, or a toy, and at $AU 500 a machine, it certainly isn’t cheap.

And the LEGO Mindstorm NXT is certainly not a children’s toy, so much as a robotic latest in hardcore senser technology that anyone can use…

The NXT is a sensor-capable robot that responds to touch, light, sound, contrast and other NXTs. It has a built-in software package that allows you to program it do to all sorts of crazy things; bring a remote to you while watching the TV, baffle your canine companian as it zooms around the room, and you can even program it to follow a line on a flat surface over, and over, in an infinite loop.

You can connect your NXT to the computer to increase its limited on-board capabilities, via a Bluetooth connection or USB, and with an easy-going GUI and help system, novice programmers will be learning the fundamentals of robotics, looping and algorithms in a few minutes… once they finally set up the NXT Robot of course!

And don’t get me wrong, the Mindstorm isn’t a toy for younger children, its durable but the sensors can be broken, but the endless hours of fun are worth the risk - you can get the NXT to do practically anything. Keep going straight until you clap, then something that you decide will happen! About to run into a brick wall - aha! - not when you’ve programmed its touch sensor to turn around in a quick ‘180.

[…] LEGO Mindstorms - The NXT Generation… […]