Engineers Use Legos, Too! 93
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. "
Credit ... is the only enduring testimonial to man's confidence in man. -- James Blish
Re:Plural of Lego (and lego kits) (Score:1)
Lego-Mindstorms is the AppleII of robotics! (Score:1)
I'll tell you who cares: (Score:1)
So long as the SlashDot editors and story submitters keep getting it wrong, there will always be people to posting "It's Lego, not Legos" comments.
Wade.
Re:Plural of Lego (Score:1)
It goes like this
1. One piece of lego.
2. Some lego bricks.
3. A pile of Lego. (becauase the first thing you do is throw it on the floor to look for that one piece you REALLY need)
4. Not quite enough lego to build the really cool thing your best friend build last week.
Troc
Re:Legos? What about ... (Score:1)
lego looks cool and is great for making nice looking fairly complex models etc but if you want to build some real engineering and don't own a mini-lathe then meccano is the way to go (unless you lose the nuts like I keep doing. I think I have kleptomaniacal mice)
troc
Re:Don't Grow up! (Score:1)
It was the same with my train set, rocketry kits, remote controlled cars and barbie dolls.
Troc
PS The barbie dolls thing is complex and I've had councelling
Re:Better Nerd Playthings (Score:1)
Re:Lego is a collective noun (Score:1)
These fun facts and more can be learned with a bit o' reading over here: LEGO's history [lego.com]
Re:Plans for a Rocket powered Lego car? (Score:1)
Plus Rocket-powered Lego would better be renamed to Legone.
how about a virtual version of Mindstorms? (Score:1)
Arleo
Re:People Using Lego..... (Score:1)
The lever thing then had bits to bend, shear, thread and punch the metal. You effectively made all the meccano-like pieces by hand.
Unfortunately, it hit the old safety legislation. It was pretty easy to slice bits of yourself off with this thing. It was originally intended for kids/young teenagers!
I hear they're banning paper in schools soon -- too much risk of a fatal paper cut.
Re:WHO CARES!?! (Score:1)
No. "A clowder of cats" is the correct terminology -- not 'a herd'.
Anyway, think of it as sand: You may talk about grains of sand, but sand is treated as a substance. So is Lego.
Re:It's Lego not Legos! (Score:1)
Re:What is Kids? (Score:1)
J
Perhaps... (Score:1)
/me thinks Mattel should fire those engineers! (Score:1)
You have gears, tank treads, wheels, axles, girders (with holes for the axles), motors, and sensors - and you couldn't build a robot? What the heck was wrong with you guys? Did you EVER play with LEGO as a kid? Did any of you (OK, I will accept that it is possible to grow up and become an engineer without EVER having played with LEGO in the past)? At the minimum, one would think you could have come up with a simple two wheel motorized device with skids (even if it wouldn't work with the RCX, it would still be a robot - just one that needs the software worked out). You wouldn't have even needed to mess around with gears and such - you could have used pulleys and rubber bands.
If you and these engineers were dropped in the middle of a Home Depot - could you build a robot with what is there? Somehow, I tend to think you would be lost - even with the multitude of tools and parts at your disposal (and for those of you who doubt that you could build a robot from parts at a Home Depot - go to one, and take a good look around).
It amuses me that these guys call themselves engineers...
kids? (Score:1)
so engineers also play with kids?
Better Nerd Playthings (Score:1)
Re:Plural of Lego (and lego kits) (Score:1)
Well they can go away before dying if that's more convenient.
Hanging, drawing, and quartering is too good for them. How about we tattoo "The plural of Lego is Lego" on their foreheads, and let them live. Heh, I like that.
There should probably be a smiley in there somewhere...
Re:Chill out (Score:1)
Re:Plural of Lego (and lego kits) (Score:1)
Is Lego. The company says so too. Its either Lego, or Logo bricks. Not Legos.
This discussion happens every time there's a lego story posted here... and noone ever changes their view. In some respects, it means that /. is getting more like news - threads start repeating, oldbies have seen it all, and the newbies ask the same questions. The trolls, oh, the trolls....
On a slightly more relevant note, How many Mindstorms kits have you folks found you need to make neat stuff? I just have one kit, and it's never enough, I end up needing more motors, more sensors, and more bricks... it may be cheap robotics, but to do anything really enjoyable with it you still need to expend a fair bit of money up front.
Re:Erector sets too . . (Score:1)
Rami James
Pixel Pusher
Altec Lansing R&D, IL
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Re:Legos? What about ... (Score:1)
HERE [meccano.com]
Rami
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Re:Legos? What about ... (Score:1)
Oh, those crazy kids ... (Score:1)
BTW she now understands why we have a ZX80 [t-online.de] as a cat flap.
You can learn more than engineering with Lego.
Re:Plural of Lego (and lego kits) (Score:1)
Does anyone know if the Mars Exploration add-on will be worth the money? Or am I better off just buying the motor stand-alone or from one of the other add-ons. I don't have many Technic bricks so I'm sort of hoping for lots of genereric Technic bricks.
Re:Plural of Lego (and lego kits) (Score:1)
Re:/me thinks Mattel should fire those engineers! (Score:1)
Thank God for Lego (Score:1)
I realized this past weekend that I was really looking forward to having children so that I would be able to pull out my boxes of Lego and play with them again. Purely for the benefit of my children though. I won't get any enjoyment from them. I promise. ;)
Re:WHO CARES!?! (Score:1)
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Re:They are useful tools (Score:1)
Lego Landmines. Owe it to yourself- don't walk barefoot around legos.
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Don't underestimate the power of peanut brittle
Re:What is Kids? (Score:1)
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Don't underestimate the power of peanut brittle
Re:High Temperature Lego (Score:1)
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Don't underestimate the power of peanut brittle
Re:Grow up! (Score:1)
:P
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Don't underestimate the power of peanut brittle
Re:Chill out (Score:1)
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Don't underestimate the power of peanut brittle
Re:No, real engineers do not use lego. (Score:1)
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Don't underestimate the power of peanut brittle
Legos in Interviews (Score:1)
-Aerowolf
Well ... (Score:1)
By the way, it's Lego not Legos.
Video game designers, too (Score:1)
-x1r0k3wl
Don't Grow up! (Score:1)
Re:MindStorms in Space (Score:1)
Of course not. All Lego uses the same units. This is called the Blob. Most bricks are 2 blobs wide and 4 blobs long. The only exception to this rule is with Duplo.
toy think tank (Score:1)
How, exactley, does one get a job in a "toy think tank"?Who must I schmooze?
Just like breasts... (Score:1)
Re:High Temperature Lego (Score:1)
Re:Grow up! Mechano was way cool but hard to get. (Score:1)
Re:Legos? What about ... (Score:1)
relieving stress, just try, click and go, when
meccano is for more serious experimenting. Anyway,
good to have choices like always.
Another Good Link (Score:1)
Re:Grow up! (Score:1)
I prefer healthy childishness being ported to lego than to the creation and defense of this nonsensical elite-idea of 'technical expertise'. If you are such a 'real engineer' you should be proud with so many wannabeyou's round here. Or r u having a hard time keeping it up? Almost as hard as growing up must have been? }>
If da Vinci had had lego, the world would be different. And he would surely not have been a real engineer.
'Fermat's last theorema is unprovable' is unprovable (which is of course...nevermind)
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Legos Saved My Life (Score:1)
Needless to say, I barely had $8, so $80 was way out of my league. I went home, taped a couple of Legos together and shoved them under the steering column. It worked flawlessly and they were still there when the car finally died 3 years later.
Re:Legos? What about ... (Score:1)
Re:No, real engineers do not use lego. (Score:1)
Re:It's Lego not Legos! (Score:1)
Yeah, and I suppose you make pillows from gooses, shoot deers, catch fishes and run away from mooses.
You're an idiot.
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Best toy ever invented (Score:1)
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Plural of Lego: Solution (Score:1)
If everybody talked about the Lego pieces/"bricks" then the problem would go away: piece/pieces, brick/bricks.
That is, by the way, also the most common way to refer to Lego in Lego's native country: Legoklods / Legoklodser.
Just my .02 cents
-dennis
Re:Z and VDM won't make you a better engineer (Score:1)
Z and VDM are not programming languages, they are specification languages.
Z and VDM won't make you a better engineer (Score:1)
Re:Z and VDM won't make you a better engineer (Score:1)
Been tried. Resulting code is fat, slow, and often just as full of errors and ommissions.
Re:Z and VDM won't make you a better engineer (Score:1)
Z is a specification syntax - nothing more, nothing less.
It does not prescribe a moethodology for writing programs, nor will it allow you to avoid any common coding errors.
Specifying anything non-trivial is nearly impossible, and Z/VDM won't help you a lick when it comes to the really nasty issues of programming, like pointer manipulation.
Lego (Score:1)
Semantics (Score:1)
Re:It's Lego not Legos! (Score:1)
This is a case of a language term being absorbed into English, as many other languages have been before. The first thing that's done is to create for nouns singular and plural forms that roughly match the language's style. In English, this is to pluralize a noun by putting an S after it. Millions of speakers of the language will pluralize the noun in this way until only a few throwbacks are left running around insisting that it's not so. In this way the language continues to change. It doesn't matter what the correct usage _was_. The correct usage _now_ in English will be to say for more than one lego, legos.
Usage is defined by the users of the language, not by the originators. I figure in a forum such as
Re:Grow up! (Score:1)
Plans for a Rocket powered Lego car? (Score:1)
Re:Plural of Lego (and lego kits) (Score:1)
Lego is a collective noun (Score:2)
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..... (Score:2)
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
just some thoughts
Troc
Re:Where can i get legos? (Score:2)
But you probably want http://www.earleshouse.com/LEGO/ [earleshouse.com]
troc
Prototyping? Try Fischer Technik as well. (Score:2)
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... (Score:2)
So, has anyone written a Lisp interface for Mindstorms yet? I know about not-quite-c...
darren
Cthulhu for President! [cthulhu.org]
They are useful tools (Score:2)
NetSol (Score:2)
Re:Erector sets too . . (Score:2)
Erector sets too . . (Score:2)
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 ... (Score:2)
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 [meccano.com] toys are perfect for engineers (and over-imaginative youths.. hehe).
Rami James
Pixel Pusher
Altec Lansing R&D, IL
Read the fscking article.... (Score:2)
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:Legos? What about ... (Score:2)
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.
Re:High Temperature Lego (Score:2)
... unless a rocket blows up and takes out one of your eyes.
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Don't underestimate the power of peanut brittle
Senior SWE Project (Score:2)
(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:
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 (Score:2)
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 [http]
NMSU engineering program uses Legos. (Score:2)
kwsNI
I'm not surprised (Score:2)
First Lego League (Score:2)
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 [legomindstorms.com].
MindStorms in Space (Score:2)
The MindStorm kits can be used to learn important engineering lessons and can help to encourage budding engineers.
Lego Weapons (Score:2)
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
Thank you.
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Re:What is Kids? (Score:3)
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. (Score:3)
Legos and Engineering and other things... (Score:3)
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/
I say it's no good if you can't have a sense of humour about it.
just my $0.02
Re:Grow up! (Score:3)
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 (Score:3)
Mindstorm's Success has not gone unnoticed... (Score:4)
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? (Score:4)
Why would engineers use Kids? And why is Lego better than Kids?
tools of the Gods (Score:5)
Other great Lego hacks:
It's not just adults? (Score:5)