Engineers Use Legos, Too!

jconley writes: "Excite is carrying a story discussing how engineers are using Legos, not just kids! Interesting read, dives a bit into the history of Legos and Mindstorm. You can read the story here. "

Comments

Lego is a collective noun

[grinder]

What on earth is it with you people calling it ``Legos''? It's Lego, it's a collective noun.

It's like saying you build a house out of woods, steels and cements.

People Using Lego.....

[troc]

We've just had a week long TV series here in the UK about robot sports competitions by the guys who run Robot Wars - one or two of the robots in that were made from lego, the one that stick in my mind was a rope climbing robot. It didn't do particularly well mind you :)

It's not really surprising that it's not only kids that play with lego mindstorms - how many of us were brought up on lego? I remember the excitement of my first lego technic set, I'm sure it's what made me the person I am today (insert geek or nerd instead of person if you feel the need :) I must admit though I always thought meccano was more powerful and I'd love a robotic control system for my meccano sets, maybe it's time for a lego/meccano hybrid. A sort of android if you will.

just some thoughts

Troc

Re:Where can i get legos?

[troc]

http://www.constructio ntoys.com/products/lego/dacta/text.html has some kits.

But you probably want http://www.earleshouse.com/LEGO/

troc

Prototyping? Try Fischer Technik as well.

[jetson123]

I always preferred Fischer Technik (US distributor) to Lego. I think that, mechanically, the Fischer Technik set allows more interesting geometries and has better support for building assemblies with moving parts. Electronically, they came out with analog and digital control electronics and PC interfaces long before Lego. There are a number of links at here.

Fischer Technik has been used in engineering classes for a long time. I think the reason why it hasn't caught on as much in the US consumer market is because for many years they went more for functionality and less for appearance.

Re:Legos and Engineering and other things...

[dlc]

• being an AI sort of computer geek

So, has anyone written a Lisp interface for Mindstorms yet? I know about not-quite-c...

darren

Cthulhu for President!

They are useful tools

[thogard]

Everyplace I've worked always seems to have different uses for the little plastic bricks. One place did most prototyping with them. Another used them as model circut boards in a device. The current place uses them to build jigs for plastic engraving as well as some prototyping. I've seen them in laser and chem labs as well.

NetSol

[vbrtrmn]

A friend of mine, at Network Solutions, was told to 'expense' US$70 worth of Lego's he purchased .. now you know what your dot com paid for.

Re:Erector sets too . .

[Duxup]

I was not aware of that. Thanks!

Erector sets too . .

[Duxup]

I have to agree. I played with legos a ton when I was younger, however they did not always fit the job. As opposed to your choice of Construx, I often used my father's Erector Sets (sp?) for more "industrial" style work out in the sandbox or yard. Legos just couldn't take the weather, physical "kid" abuse, or the occasional explosions around the 4th of July.

Legos are great, but your right when you note that some construction "toys" are more appropriate in some engineering, and fun cases too.

Legos? What about ...

[Lonesmurf]

Ok, Ok. I see that Legos are the coolest thing since sliced bread (I prefer real bread that you actually have to cut.. but we won't go into that here). But wouldn't an engineer prefer something more, uhm, stable for constructing things with?

I understand that legos have a large amount of variety nowadays.. but how many engineers will actually include a lightsaber or dragon's wings into a project.

Remember Capsela (sp?), Construx? Neither of those would be good for engineers either. Too specialized.

Now MECCANO toys are perfect for engineers (and over-imaginative youths.. hehe).

Rami James
Pixel Pusher
Altec Lansing R&D, IL

Re:Legos? What about ...

[Carnage4Life]

The article is not about professional engineers using Lego to construct prototypes but instead about Silicon Valley software engineers playing with Lego Mindstorms to relieve stress.
There's also some MIT professor who uses it in his media lab but it sounds like he's more a software engineer than real engineer from the article.

PS: I'll soon be a software engineer so no offense intended to all those who think I'm belittling software engineering.

Read the fscking article....

[Carnage4Life]

>Hello, Lego is a kids toy, not some kind of magic prototyping tool for professional engineers.

From the article: "As a grown man, this is good stress relief and it keeps my imagination going," said Stangl, a 34-year-old technical support engineer for Sun-Netscape Alliance and one of thousands of techies taken with this children's toy.

This goes out to you and all the other's posting without reading the article. It says NOTHING about Legos being used as some sort of prototyping tool by engineers. It is an article about how Silicon Valley geeks enjoy playing with Lego. That's it, no more, no less.

Re:High Temperature Lego

[webrunner]

Hindsight is 20/20

... unless a rocket blows up and takes out one of your eyes.

----
Don't underestimate the power of peanut brittle

Senior SWE Project

[rsborg]

... involved using and building Lego and Fischer-Technic machines, and writing the control software to control and manage the physical automata.

(this was back in '96, too)

My team created, modified and wrote the cotrol software for the 'turtle' automaton, which acted as a transport mechanism for the production system. The turtle had light sensors and lights, which allowed it to follow a path (with intersections), and we could program where it was supposed to turn, and what kind of turn (left, right, U-turn) it was to perform. The fun part was doing traffic control for 2+ turtles moving on the same closed path. Some of the other automata were:

• LEGO: A brick sorter, which placed bricks into bins depending on what color they were
• FT: A crane, which would pick up and drop these bricks given three dimensional coordinates
• LEGO: A line-feed picture scanner, with pretty decent resolution (200 dpi, I believe)

I really had fun with my project, and I'm glad that Lego is back on track (still haven't had a chance to play with Mindstorms, tho).

The power of Lego

[Grant Elliott]

First of all, this is hardly new news. Engineers and other cool people (like the geeks at MIT : ) have been using Lego for years. Lego is by far the most versatile prototyping tool in existance. And here's why:

Easy and fast construction

Equally easy and fast reconstruction (stuff happens...)

Incredibly well designed modular components (Have you seen all the ways these parts can fit together?)

Durability and structural integrity (Hey, for plastic...)

Simplicity

Amazingly wide assortment of engineering components (There are differentials : )

Frequent updates (Remember the differentials? Lego has released three versions; each better than the last)

Relatively low cost

Customer friendly company

That, my friends, is why Lego is not just a toy.

Four years ago, well before Mindstorms, I bought the Control Lab. It has 8 input (4 Digital, 4 Analog) and 8 output ports. The only catch is that it has to be tethered via serial cable. The software is nice too, because you can even make a little GUI. It has a pretty impressive assortment of commands too; much more than Mindstorms. If you use Lego for prototyping or just fun with engineering, I highly recommend you try one of these.

I've built pretty much everything out of Lego. I've built automated fighting robots, a robot that could assemble Lego, and an automatic car test track (to name a few).

My current project is by far the most impressive. I even managed to turn it into a winning Science Fair project. It's a Digital Mechanical Computer built entirely out of Lego pieces. I'm working on a nice site to explain the mechanisms and such. The entire device is modular and the ALU is expandable (I currently have it at two 2-bit inputs in parallel). The ALU returns the OR,AND, XOR, Sum, and Carry of the inputs. It has registers and everything. Very cool. Right now, the device contains about 400 gears (including 31 differentials) in very tight quarters.

For more information about the Lego, visit Lugnet

NMSU engineering program uses Legos.

[kwsNI]

I just finished taking a tour of the New Mexico State University's Engineering and Computer Technology facility. The manufacturing and electronics programs got together and built an entire computer controlled manufacturing plant out of Lego bricks and a PLC (Programable Logic Controller).

kwsNI

I'm not surprised

[Awlrich]

I have been doing research into autonomous agents, and there are alot about that use LEGO as it is a great prototyping tool, and reasonably versatile...

First Lego League

[Dhericean]

In the US there is a school level competition where groups of students build a robot to try and achieve various tasks. They get a pack that includes the instructions and the extra pieces. They can only use the basic Robotics Invention System (RIS) and the supplied extra pieces. The current challenges revolves around rescuing trapped astronauts.

There are instructions for building standard arenas so that teams can get together and hold tournaments. Although there are some people doing this outside the US, none are in the UK (and I'm too old anyway). This just shows that yet again us old wrinklies were born too early (and in my case in the wrong country).

Details can be found under the 'First Lego League' button on the MindStorms website.

MindStorms in Space

[Dhericean]

Astronaut Dr. Daniel T. Barry has been involved with the First Lego League, and carried a working MidnStorms model of the shuttle arm into space on Discovery during STS-96 (May last year).

The MindStorm kits can be used to learn important engineering lessons and can help to encourage budding engineers.

Lego Weapons

[multipartmixed]

Does anybody know if there is a LEGO Mindstorm attachment which lets you shoot things other than those little catapult balls?

I want to shoot cats.

Say, with a rail gun that fires ball bearings at 120ft/sec?

Or perhaps heat-generating attachments? I could fixed-mount some .22 caliber bullets and fire them off one at a time.

Thank you.

--

Re:What is Kids?

[troc]

The top 10 reasons engineers don't use kids:

10. Kids aren't colourful enough
9. You can't get 2000 kids in a standard plastic box.
8. A model made entirely of kids will get you put away
7. You can't get the really usefully shaped kids these days
6. Kids have to go to school
5. No mindstorms - where would you put the batteries?
4. Half way through building, the model would bugger off for dinner!
3. You can't get buld orders of kids through the internet
2. Well not legally

And the top reason engineers don't use kids?

1. Engineers aren't allowed access to kids :)

Troc

Re:No, real engineers do not use lego.

[unitron]

So "real" engineers never try out new ideas with scale models?

Legos and Engineering and other things...

[dgoodman]

I've been playing with legos since i was a small child...wow. I cannot get enough of them. When I got a Mindstorms set for Christmas two years ago (and the 1.5 upgrade pack this christmas) I was overjoyed. Easily the coolest toy I've ever gotten.
But the fact of the matter is: it is much more than a toy. I've found, being an AI sort of computer geek, that it's not a bad testbed for research (/serious/ /academic/ research), because it's just so darn cheap, and it's easy to build a functional robot quickly. Design changes in programming and structure can be changed in minutes. And unlike "real" robots used often enough in /serious/ research, you can attach cool little wings and lightsabers and lasercannon and such to lego robots =).
I say it's no good if you can't have a sense of humour about it.

just my $0.02

Re:Grow up!

[Saraphale]

Hello, Lego is a kids toy, not some kind of magic prototyping tool for professional engineers. It seems that a lot of people here on /. are "engineer wannabes" who wish that they were able to do something practical, but cannot do anything apart from sys admin Linux boxes. All the time in the world spent playing with your plastic bricks won't change that, and it's sad to try really.

I agree with your point, in that lego is not suitable as a prototyping tool for the vast majority of applications. It's not sturdy enough, you can't tailor the pieces to a particular application.

That said, it does have another purpose, which I think is just as important: stimulating the imagination. While Lego might not be the ideal tool for building prototypes, it does offer a cheap and easy way of 'thinking out loud', and that can spark ideas for real designs of real machines. IMHO one of the major problems facing the various different engineering industries at the moment is that the working environment stifles creativity and imagination. If these people are using lego to break free of that, and start the creative process going, then all the best to them.

High Temperature Lego

[Colvin Burgess]

I would like to see high temperature Lego. The rockets I made as a kid with Lego would only last two trips. Same with the rocket powered cars - these only lasted one trip because usually they hit the garage wall hard, followed with a very impressive Lego shower. At the time I did not realise how expensive Lego was, so my collection quickly dwindled to melted lumpy bits. Other than destructive creations high temperature Lego could be used for Oil "Aromatherapy" kits, miniature kilns (to melt Smurfs in?), etc. They could be supplied with instructions of how to make your own rocket fuel packs with 63% Potassium Nitrate, 17% Icing sugar and 10% sulphur with a black powder core.

Mindstorm's Success has not gone unnoticed...

[marcsiry]

...by the competition, specifically Mattel. (geek-unfriendly Mattel, from what I read here on /.)

A little more than a year ago I was working as a designer for the Mattel Toylab, a "toy think tank" that developed product in conjunction with Intel's Smart Toy Lab (in Portland) and other Mattel divisions. We went out and bought a Mindstorms, with the expressed purpose to open the box and build a working robot within an hour without reading the instructions. Well, no one managed to do it... Mindstorms is too complex for no-brainer assembly, which is a large part of the appeal for engineers and the like.

However, Mattel's audience consists mainly of children 3-10, so we were tasked with the creation of a "no brainer Mindstorms robot." We came up with a sphere-shaped central driver unit, radio controlled or pre-programmable a la "Big Track," with snap on robot-accessories (it would come with two utility arms, the others would be sold seperately, of course :-)

The idea was to sell a robot that kids could have up and running within minutes of opening the box, yet still have a feeling of "pride of construction" (from snapping on the arms etc.) Software included with the robot would allow kids to simulate how much better their robot could be if they went out and bought the extra accessories (essentially an advertisement masquerading as educational software).

The project got to the prototype phase, but then stalled- partly due to Mattel's financial trouble causing the company to stop looking forward, and start falling back on "safe" bets (a bad idea IMHO) but also due to the fact it would have been too cheap! The robot would have sold for $40-$60 (not surprising, considering it was just a tarted-up remote control vehicle- programming was limited to "movement macros") and thus would be "losing" the $140-$120 that Mindstorms was capturing. By the time I left Mattel for a dot-com startup, I was seeing far more complex robots being prototyped, but these were mainly from the Intel portion of the lab, and were all-in-one solutions- no assembly required. Most involved remote surveillance via video and sound transmitted wirelessly to your PC from a radio controlled "robot."

So, don't be surprised if the next robots to market sport an "Intel Inside" sticker!

What is Kids?

[dannyspanner]

Excite is carrying a story discussing how engineers are using Legos, not just kids!

Why would engineers use Kids? And why is Lego better than Kids?

tools of the Gods

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, I've seen Lego bricks used for everything from solenoid insulation in a 1978 Triumph Spitfire to replacement switches in a blast furnace (I kid you not). They're some of the most practical and useful tools you could ever want.

Other great Lego hacks:

• If you can hack a little FORTH, you can make a Mindstorms toy attached to someone's Solaris or SGI box seek out and store their password file when the toy is powered up. I don't know why, but there's something which appeals to my warped sense of humour in building a little model of a Trojan Horse, which is itself a Trojan :-)
• I once made a lego "exoskeleton" for my left hand while playing guitar in a thrashadelic metal band. Basically an intertial doohickey that tapped down a fret above my pinky finger, giving me access to extended reach and some wild chromatic licks, when playing in the right key.
• The plastic axles from a Technics kit are just the ticket if you want to unscrew the cooling fan from most Mac models, but don't have the right Allen key
• Those little rubber tyres can be used as sealing O-rings in all models of the Space Shuttle before Atlantis, if you can't find the right part. But fer chrissakes don't let them get cold overnight; that's bad shit.
• And finally, with a bit of skill, a motorised Technics kit, and a pound and a half of liver (warmed in a microwave), you can hack up a reasonable subsititute for female company.

Happy Lego hacking

It's not just adults?

[sstrick]

You mean kids also play with lego?