The MIT Programmable Brick is a tiny, portable computer embedded inside a LEGO brick, capable of interacting with the physical world through sensors and motors. The Programmable Brick extends the child's construction kit, enabling students to build not only structures and mechanisms, but also behaviors. With Programmable Bricks, students can spread computation throughout their worlds: they can use Programmble Bricks to build autonomous robots and "creatures"; to create "active rooms" (for example, making the lights turn on whenever anyone enters the room); and to organize "personal science experiments" (for example, counting the number of steps they take in a day). By engaging students in new types of design activities, the Programmable Brick encourages students to see themselves as designers and inventors. At the same time, these activities can help students develop a deeper understanding of important scientific concepts related to behavior, feedback, and control.

Update:
In the Fall of 1998 the Lego Company announced that they would begin selling Mindstorms and Robolab.

A guiding force in the Conexiones Program studying the Programmable Bricks was our understanding that the Lego Corporation and MITs research is grounded in the constructionist theories of learning. We have been very interested in applying some theories of constructionism in our program and have been following the research that MIT has been doing in a real world situation at the Computer Clubhouse in Boston MA.

Robotic Links
This is an incomplete listing of robotic links. Some of these links were found by the Conexiones students. If you know any interesting robotic sites not included on this page, please feel free to email us with "robotic links" in the subject line. Also, using the Lego Maniacs Search, you can find various other links to many more sites.

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Corporate LEGO Related sites

LEGO DACTA
The LEGO Group provides creative experiences, construction toys, educational materials, lifestyle products, family parks and media products for children all over the world.

Pitsco / LEGO Dacta
Nineteen ninety-eight has seen the full scale launching of the joint venture between Pitsco, the leader in innovative, hands-on/minds-on technology education for over twenty-five years, and LEGO Dacta, the educational division of the world renowned LEGO Company.

National Instruments
A partnership between National Instruments, LEGO Dacta, and Tufts University brings the exciting world of science and engineering to students of all ages.

LEGO
The LEGO Group provides creative experiences, construction toys, educational materials, lifestyle products, family parks and media products for children all over the world.

Universities:

University of Massachusetts
A very large list of robotics sites maintained by the Laboratory for Perceptual Robotics.

Tufts University
The Center for Engineering Educational Outreach at Tufts University is dedicated to bringing engineering into the K-12 classroom. Using the model of engineering design projects, the center coordinates engineering and education experts with teachers to design curricula based on engineering programs.

Swathmore College
Lisa A. Meeden an assistant professor in the Computer Science Program at Swarthmore College has robotic links and lego links among other interesting links.

Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University's Department of Electrical Engineering and the Department of Computer Science Present The 1997 Annual EE/CS Lego Car Competition.

University of West Florida
For a few years now, our "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence" (CAP-5600) has incorporated Lego robots into the curriculum. The class culminates in a contest whose participants are autonomous robots created by the students of the course.

Brown University
Advanced robotics at Brown University

Massachussets Institute of Technology

Epistemology and Learning Group
The Epistemology and Learning Group at the MIT Media Lab explores how new technologies can enable new ways of thinking, learning, and designing. The group creates new "tools to think with" and explores how these tools can help bring about change in real-world settings, such as schools, museums, and under-served communities.
LEGObug
This page presents the design of a two-motor, two-touch-sensor LEGO robot, nicknamed the LEGObug. This ``turtle style'' robot is a great platform for carrying the Handy Board controller, to serve as an example robot for a wide range of applications. LEGObug has space for mounting additional sensors.
MIT Programmable Brick
The MIT Programmable Brick is a tiny, portable computer embedded inside a LEGO brick, capable of interacting with the physical
world through sensors and motors. The Programmable Brick extends the child's construction kit, enabling students to build not only
structures and mechanisms, but also behaviors.
KMUTT LEGO Robot Design Workshop
Fred, Wanda, and Claudia are in Bangkok leading a LEGO design workshop with students, instructors, and professors from several universities in Thailand as part of the the Suksapattana Foundation's Lighthouse Project.
Robotics resources for students and hobbyists
The purpose of this site is to collect and organize information to make it easier for robotics hobbyists and students to learn about and build robots.
ESG Lego Robotics Seminar
Do you like playing with legos? Do you think building stuff is neat? Do you want to learn some robotics? This might be the class for you.
Fred's 6.270 Home Page
6.270 is the course number of MIT's LEGO Robot Design Competition Project. In 6.270, students receive a kit containing LEGO parts, electronics, sensors, batteries, motors, and wire, and have one month to design, build, and debug an autonomous contest robot.
Crickets: Tiny Computers for Big Ideas
The Cricket is a tiny computer, powered by a 9 volt battery, that can control two motors and receive information from two sensors. Crickets are equipped with an infrared communication system that allows them to communicate with each other.
Programmable Beads
As part of the Toys to Think With project, we've built several strings of Programmable Beads: computational jewelry that children (of all ages) can play with and learn from. Each bead is a tiny computer, able to talk to its neighbors and to change color.

Bluffton College
The purpose of NITLEMITE is to develop a nitinol-powered walking robot similar to the Stiquito robot of Indiana University and the SCORPIO robot of The University of Toledo, using LEGO parts for the body as in the robots from MIT's Mobile Robots Lab. The use of LEGOs allow for easier prototyping and greater expansion of walking robots.

Wellesley College
In Xylophone Player, Becky Lippmann built an ingenious LEGO robot that could play a toy xylophone. The robot moved back and forth along a track, using a reflectance sensor to keep track of which key it was over. A spring-loaded arm held a mallet which could strike the keys with just the right touch.

Indiana University
On April 19, 1995, LEGO Systems, Inc., the U.S. division of the Denmark-based LEGO Group, established a sales company in Mexico City, Mexico announced LEGO Systems Inc. President Peter Eio.

University of Illinois
This very cool robot's goal in life it to pick up blocks and return them to its nest while defending it's self from other robots.

Griffith University
This site is home to a contest where a lego robot must follow a figure 8 on the floor, three times. Seems easy enough right, well check it out and see for yourself!

University of Western Australia

Australia's Telerobot on the web
Move blocks with an advanced robot down under
Australia's Telerobot
Links to related sites.

LEGO Projects:

TechnoLogica
A company producing a control software to be used with technology simulation systems TC-LEGO (Technic Control).The user builds models from LEGO bricks and uses the computer to control the operation of the models. Also lists Lego Curriculum ideas.

Icobotics
The ICOBotics(TM) system was designed at Caltech to teach the basics of computer programming and robotics to junior high and high school students by providing them with an intuitive, graphical environment that they can use to write computer programs that control LEGO(R) robots.

Museum of Science and Industry
The Museum has embarked on two new adventures with LEGO Launch Pad and MSI Presents LEGO MindStorms. Featuring hands-onbuilding opportunities with DUPLO building blocks, voice-controlled robots, touch screens and push button controls, LEGO Launch Pad will engage visitors in a host of activities designed to spark imagination!

MIT Media Lab: Crickets Timy computers for Big Ideas

MIT Media Lab: Programmable Beads

Centre for Innovative Technology in Education / LEGO Dacta

Lego Data Acquisition and Prototyping System: Tufts University
We are dedicated to introducing Engineering into K-14 education. Engineering and it's ways of thinking and knowing are seriously lacking in public education. Engineering is involved whether a student is taking apart an everyday object to figure out how it works, or designing an experiment to test a hypothesis. We, therefore, introduce engineering both for its own merit and as a motivator for learning math and science. By taking advantage of a child's tendency to build and create, we have combined Lego Dacta building blocks with engineering challenges in our methodology as we develop curricula, and hardware and software extensions to enhance learning.

LEGOsheets
An educational environment exploring new paradigms to program autonomous computer toys based on the MIT Programmable Brick. Simpler and more interactive than Logo-based approaches, LEGOsheets allows kids to define complex behaviors as IF-THEN rules and interact with sensor and effector information using live direct manipulation interfaces.

The Red Rover Project
The Red Rover, Red Rover Project is the most compelling classroom learning experience that The Planetary Society has ever developed. Build a rover, create a Marscape, and explore! Or, control someone else's rover over the Internet. Suddenly, you are exploring places you never thought possible, gaining exciting,hands-on experience as you build your own rover, with only a minimal investment.

Mobile Robots Group, University of Edinburgh
"The AI Department has available a large number of kits for building autonomous Lego vehicles.

Davis Creek Elementary

Blake School

Fibblesnork LEGO Guide

Pause Magazine LEGO Reference Guide

Brooklyn College

Lower School LEGO Projects at The Blake School

MIT/Rhode Island Robotic Design Project

Misc Links

Weird Richard
We use LEGO® material extensively and I am convinced you can teach a student anything using their products. I have devoted this site to pictures of PCS projects, lessons that parents and teachers can borrow and links to other cool LEGO® websites that deserve to be frequented. Explore and enjoy!

Robots from the 80s and 90s
This site is not about antique or vintage tin robots and tin toys. All of my robots are from the 80´s and 90´s. Most of them were made in China, Hong Kong or Japan - but nevertheless I like them. If you have further information or you can correct something, please send an e-mail. Enjoy!

Robots wanted dead or alive
ROBOTS WANTED: Dead or Alive, Whole or Parts, HeathKit (HERO JR, HERO 1, HERO 2000, Arm Trainer), Androbots (Topo, Bob, Fred, and Androman), RB5X, Artec GEMINI, Omnibots, Rhino Robots, MAXX STEELE, NEWTON SynPet, Comro Tot, Marvin, RoPet, Servitron, ELAMI, CYBER I, MARTHA, GEORGE, HUBOT, Hearoid, Turtles, Etc. Also looking for Robot accesories and technical literature. Please don't throw that old Robot away!

IS Robotics
Our Real World Interface Division develops for the research and commercial industries. Get more information about Artificial Creatures and interactive technologies. Currently a prototype under development, Urban Robot features robust systems and onboard data processing. Check it out!

The Art of Motion Control
Motion control is the process of computer controlled kinetics-- the foundation of robotics. CNC (computer numeric control) is an antiquated term for this process, recalling an era when programmers entered the numeric commands and coordinates for each machine move.

Tips on how to make a transforming legobot
Many people write me and ask, "How do you make your robots?" "Do you start with the robot or the vehicle?" 80% of my 'bots I start with a basic robot body. I decided to sit down with the digital camera and take pics as I made a totally new 'bot. This is a walkthrough of the entire process.

Robot Gallery Directory
A directory of sites with all kinds of robots.

Cricket the robot
Cricket is a simple walking robot designed to be low cost. He walks around using a trigate step, avoids objects when touched by the feelers, and chirps randomly.

Robot Home Page (Italian)

Matt's LEGO Train Depot
All about LEGO® 9V Trains and Railways by Matthew D. Bates

"Great Room" Layout
This is a huge layout that I built in our "Great Room". It has an airport, a monorail, two stations, a Motorail terminal, a freight terminal and two harbours. It hasfour train loops and one monorail loop. One loop and some of the monorail meanders through a mountainous Duplo region. To clear the train track all of the monorail is raised three bricks including the two monorail stations that had to be carefully modified for the extra height.