Lego Mindstorms Used To Make Artificial Bones

An anonymous reader writes "Scientists at Cambridge University have used Lego Mindstorms robots to create an artificial bone-like substance. The toy robots proved to be much easier to set up and vastly more economical than more high-tech solutions. Their research is featured in a video for the 2012 Google Science Fair."

Comments

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Love it

[Anonymous Coward]

Love stuff like this..

Where someone who would normally draw from a mostly vertical market (industrial robotics) draws from a more horizontal one (toys).

In the time it takes to even figure out who to call about getting information on the stuff they need built .. someone can run to Toys R' Us and get everything they need, and at a fraction of the cost!

Whoever saw their kid playing with lego and thought this up deserves like a free toaster or something.

Re:Love it

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Where someone who would normally draw from a mostly vertical market (industrial robotics) draws from a more horizontal one (toys).

The first experimental modern soft contact lenses made of water-permeable plastic gel were manufactured in the 1960's on a machine constructed from the parts of a local (Czech) clone of the Erector/Meccano construction kit (named Merkur).

Rapid prototyping

[hackertourist]

Lego is fantastic for cobbling something together quickly. I've used Lego scaffolding when building scale models, e.g. to hold a wing in the correct position when gluing it to the fuselage.

It has its limitations (Technic hole-and-pin structures tend not to be rigid, lots of play in geartrains), but still.

Re:Rapid prototyping

[Beardo the Bearded]

The Mindstorms handle lots of the mundane details in robotics, like motor loading, sensor debounce, etc. You can add on your own sensors pretty easily too. I used v2 extensively to prototype stuff. For $300 you just can't beat the kit. Sure it's got limitations, but you know that going in. For a first-run, it's orders of magnitude cheaper than a 3D printer or machining parts.

FWIW, I'm a Professional Electrical Engineer.

Megablocks

[Oswald McWeany]

Can't wait for them to make artificial bones out of megablocks and use it for medical applications.

It'll cost less than half the price- but your arms will keep falling off.

Industrial-grade Mindstorms

[MaWeiTao]

This gets me wondering if Lego shouldn't open up a technical division that specializes in buildable, cost-effective robots based on Mindstorms for corporate and scientific use. Tighten up the tolerance and offer parts in materials other than plastic, like aluminum or stainless steel. Obviously they wouldn't be competing with industrial robots, but I can imagine that these things could fill quite a few needs and pricing would be attractive, particularly to academia.

Bring Back Mechano!

[nbauman]

During WWII, when Alexander Flemming was developing penicillin, they couldn't get equipment, so one scientist brought his old Mechano set from the attic and used it to construct a shaker to agitate the flasks that they used to grow the mold.

Mechano has had its ups and downs since then (mostly downs), and when I tried to buy a set a few years ago for a friend's son (actually I wanted to use it myself), the current sets were a shadow of their former self. I hope they will or have come back.

Meccano No. 10

[Kupfernigk]

The Meccano construction kit, which was metal, had a "No. 10" set which was really aimed at universities and engineering companies. I once used one to build a test rig for a UL-type test in which a hot wire had to be pressed against an electronic assembly with a controlled force. It took a couple of hours to build something that would have taken a week for the machine shop to fabricate.